The life and work of the eminent Scots botanist Robert Brown, whose scientific discovery influenced the work of Albert Einstein, will be celebrated with the launch of a fascinating exhibition at the University of Aberdeen next week.
The Robert Brown and the Year of Einstein exhibition is a joint event between the University’s Zoology Museum, the Natural Philosophy Collection of Historic Scientific Instruments, and Marischal Museum.
The exhibition opens on Monday (August 29) in the Fraser Noble Building Foyer at the University’s King’s College campus.
Robert Brown (1773 – 1858) was educated at Aberdeen’s Marischal College and is now internationally recognised as one of the most acclaimed botanists that ever lived.
In 1827, he discovered ‘Brownian Motion’ while studying tiny pollen grains suspended in still water through a microscope. He noticed that yet tinier particles within the pollen grains were moving in an incessant, irregular manner. It was these observations that became critical in the development of Albert Einstein’s ideas three quarters of a century later.
Although the existence of atoms and molecules was still open to debate in 1905, Einstein predicted that the random motions of molecules in a liquid impacting on larger suspended particles would result in irregular, random motions of the particles, which could be directly observed under a microscope. The predicted motion corresponded precisely with the puzzling Brownian motion.
From this motion, Einstein accurately determined the dimensions of the hypothetical molecules in one of his seminal 1905 papers.
This phenomenon is covered in greater depth in the exhibition, which features a microscope similar to the one used by Brown, as well as a computer simulation of Brownian Motion.
The University of Aberdeen has seven museums which combined are ranked as the sixth most important collection in Scotland.
Claire Smith is Curator of the Scientific Collections at the University of Aberdeen. She said: “We are delighted to highlight the Aberdeen connection – Robert Brown – to Einstein’s work.
“The display is a fitting testament to Brown and Einstein’s achievements and we look forward to welcoming anyone interested, including budding scientists, in discovering these important scientific advancements”.
The Robert Brown and the Year of Einstein exhibition is open to the public and will be on display until the end of the year from Monday to Friday, from 9am – 5pm.