BEIJING, Jan. 27 -- A special ceremony will be held on Chongming Island to receive an e-mail about Albert Einstein from Princeton University through an undersea fiber link on April 19, organizers said yesterday.

    The event is part of a series of activities to mark the World Year of Physics in 2005 as well as to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the great scientist's death.

    "We will raise a big screen on Chongming Island to amplify the special Einstein e-mail from the United States," Chen Hong, deputy director of the popular science department of the Shanghai Association for Science and Technology, said yesterday."We want to encourage more students to take up physics research," said Chen, noting that Shanghai will become the first Chinese city to receive the message.

    She explained that the e-mail is expected to arrive at Chongming Island - where the undersea fiber cable from the United States links to the city - at 7pm.

    After traveling further to some outlying provinces and cities, the message will be sent back to the university about two hours after it arrives, organizers said.

    Chen said local researchers will help design a Chinese page to be added to the e-mail to promote the public's awareness of Einstein and the study of physics.

    It is a global activity for the Princeton University to commemorate Einstein - the world-renowned German-born American theoretical physicist.

    In addition to a reception, the association will also invite renowned scientists to deliver speeches on physics to residents from April to May, and host a national juvenile physics competition in September.

    (Source: Shanghai Daily)