Question: Is it bad to want to follow in the footsteps of the great Albert Einstein? he is my idol but im not sure his footsteps will lead me to my predicted glory!

Jim Caryl answered on 22 Jun 2011:

There is nothing wrong with taking inspiration from the work of other scientists, or even emulating them, and trying to follow their footsteps – so long as at some point you branch out and produce material and new ideas (so called ‘synthesis’) yourself. Do you want to go into physics too?

You might not necessarily want to follow the direct footsteps of Einstein, because his life prior to emigrating to the USA was not an especially happy one. Whilst Albert Einstein enjoyed many fruitful years of scientific productivity, and was held in high esteem by many scientists, his life was not an easy one. His early job, being unable to find a teaching position, was as a patent clerk – an arguably mind-numbingly dull job. In fact, it was during his spare time in this job that he accomplished many of his greatest calculations. He also had to balance his work with his home life, which was something of a struggle. Scientists, even geniuses like Einstein, are also just regular people. His move to the USA was due to his objections to the political movements in Germany that would eventually lead the Germans to war, so this was a great upheaval.

You can read more about Einstein here: http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1921/einstein-bio.html