Clippings

Ernst Straus was one of the few people who had the opportunity to observe firsthand the differences in style between the master physicist and the master matematician. In a tribute to Erdös on his seventieth birthday, Straus said: “Einstein often told me that the reason he chose physics over mathematics was that mathematics is so full of beautiful and attractive questions that one might easily waste one’s powers in pursuing them without finding the central questions. In physics he had the ‘nose’ for the central questions and he felt that it was the chief duty of the scientist to pursue those questions and not let himself be seduced by any problem — no matter how difficult or attractive it might be. Erdös has consistently and successfully violated every one of Einstein’s prescriptions. He has succumbed to the seduction of every beautiful problem he has encounted — and a great number have succumbed to him. This just proves to me that in the search for truth there is room for Don Juans like Erdös and Sir Galahads like Einstein.”