Original Einstein Manuscript Uncovered
August 20, 2005The original manuscript of a paper Albert Einstein published in 1925 has been found in the archives of Leiden University's Lorentz Institute for Theoretical Physics, a spokeswoman said Saturday. Photographs of the 16-page document and a description of how a student at the Dutch university stumbled upon it were posted on the institute's Web site. Leiden University spokeswoman Hilje Papma confirmed the historic finding. The German-language manuscript entitled "Quantum theory of the monatomic ideal gas" is dated December 1924. In the paper, Einstein predicted that at temperatures near absolute zero – around 273 degrees below zero Celsius or around 460 degrees below zero Fahrenheit – particles in a gas can reach a state of such low energy that they clump together in one larger "mono-atom." The theory was developed in collaboration with Indian physicist Satyendra Nath Bose.