A Small Mystery Solved?
Todays National Review Online includes an interesting article by John Derbyshire about the great German mathematician Emmy Noether. Derbyshire admits to puzzlement on one point: Albert Einstein wrote her obituary for the New York Times, though for reasons I don’t know it was printed as a letter to the editor. Call me cynical, but Im thinking they might well have been legally obligated to pay him some standard by-the-word rate for a formal obituary, while a letter to the editor would fill space and attract readers at no cost to the Times.