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Albert Einstein

By: History.com Editors

Updated: May 16, 2019 | Original: October 27, 2009

The German-born physicist Albert Einstein developed the first of his groundbreaking theories while working as a clerk in the Swiss patent office in Bern. After making his name with four scientific articles published in 1905, he went on to win worldwide fame for his general theory of relativity and a Nobel Prize in 1921 for his explanation of the phenomenon known as the photoelectric effect. An outspoken pacifist who was publicly identified with the Zionist movement, Einstein emigrated from Germany to the United States when the Nazis took power before World War II. He lived and worked in Princeton, New Jersey, for the remainder of his life.

Einstein’s Early Life (1879-1904)

Born on March 14, 1879, in the southern German city of Ulm, Albert Einstein grew up in a middle-class Jewish family in Munich. As a child, Einstein became fascinated by music (he played the violin), mathematics and science. He dropped out of school in 1894 and moved to Switzerland, where he resumed his schooling and later gained admission to the Swiss Federal Polytechnic Institute in Zurich. In 1896, he renounced his German citizenship, and remained officially stateless before becoming a Swiss citizen in 1901.

Did you know? Almost immediately after Albert Einstein learned of the atomic bomb's use in Japan, he became an advocate for nuclear disarmament. He formed the Emergency Committee of Atomic Scientists and backed Manhattan Project scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer in his opposition to the hydrogen bomb.

While at Zurich Polytechnic, Einstein fell in love with his fellow student Mileva Maric, but his parents opposed the match and he lacked the money to marry. The couple had an illegitimate daughter, Lieserl, born in early 1902, of whom little is known. After finding a position as a clerk at the Swiss patent office in Bern, Einstein married Maric in 1903; they would have two more children, Hans Albert (born 1904) and Eduard (born 1910).

Einstein’s Miracle Year (1905)

While working at the patent office, Einstein did some of the most creative work of his life, producing no fewer than four groundbreaking articles in 1905 alone. In the first paper, he applied the quantum theory (developed by German physicist Max Planck) to light in order to explain the phenomenon known as the photoelectric effect, by which a material will emit electrically charged particles when hit by light. The second article contained Einstein’s experimental proof of the existence of atoms, which he got by analyzing the phenomenon of Brownian motion, in which tiny particles were suspended in water.

In the third and most famous article, titled “On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies,” Einstein confronted the apparent contradiction between two principal theories of physics: Isaac Newton’s concepts of absolute space and time and James Clerk Maxwell’s idea that the speed of light was a constant. To do this, Einstein introduced his special theory of relativity, which held that the laws of physics are the same even for objects moving in different inertial frames (i.e. at constant speeds relative to each other), and that the speed of light is a constant in all inertial frames. A fourth paper concerned the fundamental relationship between mass and energy, concepts viewed previously as completely separate. Einstein’s famous equation E = mc2 (where “c” was the constant speed of light) expressed this relationship.

From Zurich to Berlin (1906-1932)

Einstein continued working at the patent office until 1909, when he finally found a full-time academic post at the University of Zurich. In 1913, he arrived at the University of Berlin, where he was made director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics. The move coincided with the beginning of Einstein’s romantic relationship with a cousin of his, Elsa Lowenthal, whom he would eventually marry after divorcing Mileva. In 1915, Einstein published the general theory of relativity, which he considered his masterwork. This theory found that gravity, as well as motion, can affect time and space. According to Einstein’s equivalence principle–which held that gravity’s pull in one direction is equivalent to an acceleration of speed in the opposite direction–if light is bent by acceleration, it must also be bent by gravity. In 1919, two expeditions sent to perform experiments during a solar eclipse found that light rays from distant stars were deflected or bent by the gravity of the sun in just the way Einstein had predicted.

The general theory of relativity was the first major theory of gravity since Newton’s, more than 250 years before, and the results made a tremendous splash worldwide, with the London Times proclaiming a “Revolution in Science” and a “New Theory of the Universe.” Einstein began touring the world, speaking in front of crowds of thousands in the United States, Britain, France and Japan. In 1921, he won the Nobel Prize for his work on the photoelectric effect, as his work on relativity remained controversial at the time. Einstein soon began building on his theories to form a new science of cosmology, which held that the universe was dynamic instead of static, and was capable of expanding and contracting.

Einstein Moves to the United States (1933-39)

A longtime pacifist and a Jew, Einstein became the target of hostility in Weimar Germany, where many citizens were suffering plummeting economic fortunes in the aftermath of defeat in the Great War. In December 1932, a month before Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany, Einstein made the decision to emigrate to the United States, where he took a position at the newly founded Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey . He would never again enter the country of his birth.

By the time Einstein’s wife Elsa died in 1936, he had been involved for more than a decade with his efforts to find a unified field theory, which would incorporate all the laws of the universe, and those of physics, into a single framework. In the process, Einstein became increasingly isolated from many of his colleagues, who were focused mainly on the quantum theory and its implications, rather than on relativity.

Einstein’s Later Life (1939-1955)

In the late 1930s, Einstein’s theories, including his equation E=mc2, helped form the basis of the development of the atomic bomb. In 1939, at the urging of the Hungarian physicist Leo Szilard, Einstein wrote to President Franklin D. Roosevelt advising him to approve funding for the development of uranium before Germany could gain the upper hand. Einstein, who became a U.S. citizen in 1940 but retained his Swiss citizenship, was never asked to participate in the resulting Manhattan Project , as the U.S. government suspected his socialist and pacifist views. In 1952, Einstein declined an offer extended by David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s premier, to become president of Israel .

Throughout the last years of his life, Einstein continued his quest for a unified field theory. Though he published an article on the theory in Scientific American in 1950, it remained unfinished when he died, of an aortic aneurysm, five years later. In the decades following his death, Einstein’s reputation and stature in the world of physics only grew, as physicists began to unravel the mystery of the so-called “strong force” (the missing piece of his unified field theory) and space satellites further verified the principles of his cosmology.

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Albert Einstein: Biography, facts and impact on science

A brief biography of Albert Einstein (March 14, 1879 - April 18, 1955), the scientist whose theories changed the way we think about the universe.

• Einstein's birthday and education

Einstein's wives and children

How einstein changed physics.

• Later years and death

Gravitational waves and relativity

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Albert Einstein was a German-American physicist and probably the most well-known scientist of the 20th century. He is famous for his theory of relativity , a pillar of modern physics that describes the dynamics of light and extremely massive entities, as well as his work in quantum mechanics , which focuses on the subatomic realm. 

Albert Einstein's birthday and education

Einstein was born in Ulm, in the German state of Württemberg, on March 14, 1879, according to a biography from the Nobel Prize organization . His family moved to Munich six weeks later, and in 1885, when he was 6 years old, he began attending Petersschule, a Catholic elementary school.

Contrary to popular belief, Einstein was a good student. "Yesterday Albert received his grades, he was again number one, and his report card was brilliant," his mother once wrote to her sister, according to a German website dedicated to Einstein's legacy. But when he later switched to the Luitpold grammar school, young Einstein chafed under the school's authoritarian attitude, and his teacher once said of him, "never will he get anywhere."

In 1896, at age 17, Einstein entered the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich to be trained as a teacher in physics and mathematics. A few years later, he gained his diploma and acquired Swiss citizenship but was unable to find a teaching post. So he accepted a position as a technical assistant in the Swiss patent office. 

Related: 10 discoveries that prove Einstein was right about the universe — and 1 that proves him wrong

Einstein married Mileva Maric, his longtime love and former student, in 1903. A year prior, they had a child out of wedlock, who was discovered by scholars only in the 1980s, when private letters revealed her existence. The daughter, called Lieserl in the letters, may have been mentally challenged and either died young or was adopted when she was a year old. Einstein had two other children with Maric, Hans Albert and Eduard, born in 1904 and 1910, respectively.

Einstein divorced Maric in 1919 and soon married his cousin Elsa Löwenthal, with whom he had been in a relationship since 1912.

Einstein obtained his doctorate in physics in 1905 — a year that's often known as his annus mirabilis ("year of miracles" in Latin), according to the Library of Congress . That year, he published four groundbreaking papers of significant importance in physics.

The first incorporated the idea that light could come in discrete particles called photons. This theory describes the photoelectric effect , the concept that underpins modern solar power. The second explained Brownian motion, or the random motion of particles or molecules. Einstein looked at the case of a dust mote moving randomly on the surface of water and suggested that water is made up of tiny, vibrating molecules that kick the dust back and forth. 

The final two papers outlined his theory of special relativity, which showed how observers moving at different speeds would agree about the speed of light, which was a constant. These papers also introduced the equation E = mc^2, showing the equivalence between mass and energy. That finding is perhaps the most widely known aspect of Einstein's work. (In this infamous equation, E stands for energy, m represents mass and c is the constant speed of light).

In 1915, Einstein published four papers outlining his theory of general relativity, which updated Isaac Newton's laws of gravity by explaining that the force of gravity arose because massive objects warp the fabric of space-time. The theory was validated in 1919, when British astronomer Arthur Eddington observed stars at the edge of the sun during a solar eclipse and was able to show that their light was bent by the sun's gravitational well, causing shifts in their perceived positions.

Related: 8 Ways you can see Einstein's theory of relativity in real life

In 1921, he won the Nobel Prize in physics for his work on the photoelectric effect, though the committee members also mentioned his "services to Theoretical Physics" when presenting their award. The decision to give Einstein the award was controversial because the brilliant physicist was a Jew and a pacifist. Anti-Semitism was on the rise and relativity was not yet seen as a proven theory, according to an article from The Guardian .

Einstein was a professor at the University of Berlin for a time but fled Germany with Löwenthal in 1933, during the rise of Adolf Hitler. He renounced his German citizenship and moved to the United States to become a professor of theoretical physics at Princeton, becoming a U.S. citizen in 1940.

During this era, other researchers were creating a revolution by reformulating the rules of the smallest known entities in existence. The laws of quantum mechanics had been worked out by a group led by the Danish physicist Niels Bohr , and Einstein was intimately involved with their efforts.

Bohr and Einstein famously clashed over quantum mechanics. Bohr and his cohorts proposed that quantum particles behaved according to probabilistic laws, which Einstein found unacceptable, quipping that " God does not play dice with the universe ." Bohr's views eventually came to dominate much of contemporary thinking about quantum mechanics.

Einstein's later years and death

After he retired in 1945, Einstein spent most of his later years trying to unify gravity with electromagnetism in what's known as a unified field theory . Einstein died of a burst blood vessel near his heart on April 18, 1955, never unifying these forces.

Einstein's body was cremated and his ashes were spread in an undisclosed location, according to the American Museum of Natural History . But a doctor performed an unauthorized craniotomy before this and removed and saved Einstein's brain. 

The brain has been the subject of many tests over the decades, which suggested that it had extra folding in the gray matter, the site of conscious thinking. In particular, there were more folds in the frontal lobes, which have been tied to abstract thought and planning. However, drawing any conclusions about intelligence based on a single specimen is problematic. 

Related: Where is Einstein's brain?

In addition to his incredible legacy regarding relativity and quantum mechanics, Einstein conducted lesser-known research into a refrigeration method that required no motors, moving parts or coolant. He was also a tireless anti-war advocate, helping found the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists , an organization dedicated to warning the public about the dangers of nuclear weapons . 

Einstein's theories concerning relativity have so far held up spectacularly as a predictive models. Astronomers have found that, as the legendary physicist anticipated, the light of distant objects is lensed by massive, closer entities, a phenomenon known as gravitational lensing, which has helped our understanding of the universe's evolution. The James Webb Space Telescope , launched in Dec. 2021, has utilized gravitational lensing on numerous occasions to detect light emitted near the dawn of time , dating to just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang.

In 2016, the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory also announced the first-ever direct detection of gravitational waves , created when massive neutron stars and black holes merge and generate ripples in the fabric of space-time. Further research published in 2023 found that the entire universe may be rippling with a faint "gravitational wave background," emitted by ancient, colliding black holes.

Find answers to frequently asked questions about Albert Einstein on the Nobel Prize website. Flip through digitized versions of Einstein's published and unpublished manuscripts at Einstein Archives Online. Learn about The Einstein Memorial at the National Academy of Sciences building in Washington, D.C. 

This article was last updated on March 11, 2024 by Live Science editor Brandon Specktor to include new information about how Einstein's theories have been validated by modern experiments.

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Adam Mann is a freelance journalist with over a decade of experience, specializing in astronomy and physics stories. He has a bachelor's degree in astrophysics from UC Berkeley. His work has appeared in the New Yorker, New York Times, National Geographic, Wall Street Journal, Wired, Nature, Science, and many other places. He lives in Oakland, California, where he enjoys riding his bike. 

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Biography Online

Albert Einstein Biography

Einstein is also well known as an original free-thinker, speaking on a range of humanitarian and global issues. After contributing to the theoretical development of nuclear physics and encouraging F.D. Roosevelt to start the Manhattan Project, he later spoke out against the use of nuclear weapons.

Born in Germany to Jewish parents, Einstein settled in Switzerland and then, after Hitler’s rise to power, the United States. Einstein was a truly global man and one of the undisputed genius’ of the Twentieth Century.

Early life Albert Einstein

Einstein was born 14 March 1879, in Ulm the German Empire. His parents were working-class (salesman/engineer) and non-observant Jews. Aged 15, the family moved to Milan, Italy, where his father hoped Albert would become a mechanical engineer. However, despite Einstein’s intellect and thirst for knowledge, his early academic reports suggested anything but a glittering career in academia. His teachers found him dim and slow to learn. Part of the problem was that Albert expressed no interest in learning languages and the learning by rote that was popular at the time.

“School failed me, and I failed the school. It bored me. The teachers behaved like Feldwebel (sergeants). I wanted to learn what I wanted to know, but they wanted me to learn for the exam.” Einstein and the Poet (1983)

At the age of 12, Einstein picked up a book on geometry and read it cover to cover. – He would later refer to it as his ‘holy booklet’. He became fascinated by maths and taught himself – becoming acquainted with the great scientific discoveries of the age.

Albert Einstein with wife Elsa

Despite Albert’s independent learning, he languished at school. Eventually, he was asked to leave by the authorities because his indifference was setting a bad example to other students.

He applied for admission to the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. His first attempt was a failure because he failed exams in botany, zoology and languages. However, he passed the next year and in 1900 became a Swiss citizen.

At college, he met a fellow student Mileva Maric, and after a long friendship, they married in 1903; they had two sons before divorcing several years later.

In 1896 Einstein renounced his German citizenship to avoid military conscription. For five years he was stateless, before successfully applying for Swiss citizenship in 1901. After graduating from Zurich college, he attempted to gain a teaching post but none was forthcoming; instead, he gained a job in the Swiss Patent Office.

While working at the Patent Office, Einstein continued his own scientific discoveries and began radical experiments to consider the nature of light and space.

Einstein in 1921

He published his first scientific paper in 1900, and by 1905 had completed his PhD entitled “ A New Determination of Molecular Dimensions . In addition to working on his PhD, Einstein also worked feverishly on other papers. In 1905, he published four pivotal scientific works, which would revolutionise modern physics. 1905 would later be referred to as his ‘ annus mirabilis .’

Einstein’s work started to gain recognition, and he was given a post at the University of Zurich (1909) and, in 1911, was offered the post of full-professor at the Charles-Ferdinand University in Prague (which was then part of Austria-Hungary Empire). He took Austrian-Hungary citizenship to accept the job. In 1914, he returned to Germany and was appointed a director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics. (1914–1932)

Albert Einstein’s Scientific Contributions

Quantum Theory

Einstein suggested that light doesn’t just travel as waves but as electric currents. This photoelectric effect could force metals to release a tiny stream of particles known as ‘quanta’. From this Quantum Theory, other inventors were able to develop devices such as television and movies. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921.

Special Theory of Relativity

This theory was written in a simple style with no footnotes or academic references. The core of his theory of relativity is that:

“Movement can only be detected and measured as relative movement; the change of position of one body in respect to another.”

Thus there is no fixed absolute standard of comparison for judging the motion of the earth or plants. It was revolutionary because previously people had thought time and distance are absolutes. But, Einstein proved this not to be true.

He also said that if electrons travelled at close to the speed of light, their weight would increase.

This lead to Einstein’s famous equation:

Where E = energy m = mass and c = speed of light.

General Theory of Relativity 1916

Working from a basis of special relativity. Einstein sought to express all physical laws using equations based on mathematical equations.

He devoted the last period of his life trying to formulate a final unified field theory which included a rational explanation for electromagnetism. However, he was to be frustrated in searching for this final breakthrough theory.

Solar eclipse of 1919

In 1911, Einstein predicted the sun’s gravity would bend the light of another star. He based this on his new general theory of relativity. On 29 May 1919, during a solar eclipse, British astronomer and physicist Sir Arthur Eddington was able to confirm Einstein’s prediction. The news was published in newspapers around the world, and it made Einstein internationally known as a leading physicist. It was also symbolic of international co-operation between British and German scientists after the horrors of the First World War.

In the 1920s, Einstein travelled around the world – including the UK, US, Japan, Palestine and other countries. Einstein gave lectures to packed audiences and became an internationally recognised figure for his work on physics, but also his wider observations on world affairs.

Bohr-Einstein debates

During the 1920s, other scientists started developing the work of Einstein and coming to different conclusions on Quantum Physics. In 1925 and 1926, Einstein took part in debates with Max Born about the nature of relativity and quantum physics. Although the two disagreed on physics, they shared a mutual admiration.

As a German Jew, Einstein was threatened by the rise of the Nazi party. In 1933, when the Nazi’s seized power, they confiscated Einstein’s property, and later started burning his books. Einstein, then in England, took an offer to go to Princeton University in the US. He later wrote that he never had strong opinions about race and nationality but saw himself as a citizen of the world.

“I do not believe in race as such. Race is a fraud. All modern people are the conglomeration of so many ethnic mixtures that no pure race remains.”

Once in the US, Einstein dedicated himself to a strict discipline of academic study. He would spend no time on maintaining his dress and image. He considered these things ‘inessential’ and meant less time for his research. Einstein was notoriously absent-minded. In his youth, he once left his suitcase at a friends house. His friend’s parents told Einstein’s parents: “ That young man will never amount to anything, because he can’t remember anything.”

Although a bit of a loner, and happy in his own company, he had a good sense of humour. On January 3, 1943, Einstein received a letter from a girl who was having difficulties with mathematics in her studies. Einstein consoled her when he wrote in reply to her letter

“Do not worry about your difficulties in mathematics. I can assure you that mine are still greater.”

Einstein professed belief in a God “Who reveals himself in the harmony of all being”. But, he followed no established religion. His view of God sought to establish a harmony between science and religion.

“Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.”

– Einstein, Science and Religion (1941)

Politics of Einstein

Einstein described himself as a Zionist Socialist. He did support the state of Israel but became concerned about the narrow nationalism of the new state. In 1952, he was offered the position as President of Israel, but he declined saying he had:

“neither the natural ability nor the experience to deal with human beings.” … “I am deeply moved by the offer from our State of Israel, and at once saddened and ashamed that I cannot accept it.”

Einstein receiving US citizenship.

Albert Einstein was involved in many civil rights movements such as the American campaign to end lynching. He joined the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and  considered racism, America’s worst disease. But he also spoke highly of the meritocracy in American society and the value of being able to speak freely.

On the outbreak of war in 1939, Einstein wrote to President Roosevelt about the prospect of Germany developing an atomic bomb. He warned Roosevelt that the Germans were working on a bomb with a devastating potential. Roosevelt headed his advice and started the Manhattan project to develop the US atom bomb. But, after the war ended, Einstein reverted to his pacifist views. Einstein said after the war.

“Had I known that the Germans would not succeed in producing an atomic bomb, I would not have lifted a finger.” (Newsweek, 10 March 1947)

In the post-war McCarthyite era, Einstein was scrutinised closely for potential Communist links. He wrote an article in favour of socialism, “Why Socialism” (1949) He criticised Capitalism and suggested a democratic socialist alternative. He was also a strong critic of the arms race. Einstein remarked:

“I do not know how the third World War will be fought, but I can tell you what they will use in the Fourth—rocks!”

Rabindranath Tagore and Einstein

Einstein was feted as a scientist, but he was a polymath with interests in many fields. In particular, he loved music. He wrote that if he had not been a scientist, he would have been a musician. Einstein played the violin to a high standard.

“I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music… I get most joy in life out of music.”

Einstein died in 1955, at his request his brain and vital organs were removed for scientific study.

Citation: Pettinger, Tejvan . “ Biography of Albert Einstein ”, Oxford, www.biographyonline.net 23 Feb. 2008. Updated 2nd March 2017.

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Albert Einstein: essential timeline

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Einstein, A.: Über die spezielle und die allgemeine Relativitätstheorie (gemeinverständlich), Vieweg, Braunschweig (1917). English edition: Robert Lawson, W. (1920) Relativity: the special and general theory. Methuen & Co Ltd, London; also in: Einstein, A.: the collected papers of Albert Einstein. In: Stachel, J. et al. (eds.) Princeton University Press, Princeton (1990), vol. 6, 420–539 (available at http://einsteinpapers.press.princeton.edu/vol6-trans/259 )

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Albert Einstein Biography

Born: March 14, 1879 Ulm, Germany Died: April 18, 1955 Princeton, Massachusetts German-born American physicist and scientist

The German-born American physicist (one who studies matter and energy and the relationships between them) Albert Einstein revolutionized the science of physics. He is best known for his theory of relativity, which holds that measurements of space and time vary according to conditions such as the state of motion of the observer.

Early years and education

Albert Einstein was born on March 14, 1879, in Ulm, Germany, but he grew up and obtained his early education in Munich, Germany. He was a poor student, and some of his teachers thought he might be retarded (mentally handicapped); he was unable to speak fluently (with ease and grace) at age nine. Still, he was fascinated by the laws of nature, experiencing a deep feeling of wonder when puzzling over the invisible, yet real, force directing the needle of a compass. He began playing the violin at age six and would continue to play throughout his life. At age twelve he discovered geometry (the study of points, lines, and surfaces) and was taken by its clear and certain proofs. Einstein mastered calculus (a form of higher mathematics used to solve problems in physics and engineering) by age sixteen.

Einstein's formal secondary education ended at age sixteen. He disliked school, and just as he was planning to find a way to leave without hurting his chances for entering the university, his teacher expelled him because his bad attitude was affecting his classmates. Einstein tried to enter the Federal Institute of Technology (FIT) in Zurich, Switzerland, but his knowledge of subjects other than mathematics was not up to par, and he failed the entrance examination. On the advice of the principal, he first obtained his diploma at the Cantonal School in Aarau, Switzerland, and in 1896 he was automatically admitted into the FIT. There he came to realize that he was more interested in and better suited for physics than mathematics.

Einstein passed his examination to graduate from the FIT in 1900, but due to the opposition of one of his professors he was unable to go on to obtain the usual university assistantship. In 1902 he was hired as an inspector in the patent office in Bern, Switzerland. Six months later he married Mileva Maric, a former classmate in Zurich. They had two sons. It was in Bern, too, that Einstein, at twenty-six, completed the requirements for his doctoral degree and wrote the first of his revolutionary scientific papers.

Famous papers

Thermodynamics (the study of heat processes) made the deepest impression on Einstein. From 1902 until 1904 he reworked the foundations of thermodynamics and statistical mechanics (the study of forces and their effect on matter); this work formed the immediate background to his revolutionary papers of 1905, one of which was on Brownian motion.

In Brownian motion, first observed in 1827 by the Scottish botanist (scientist who studies plants) Robert Brown (1773–1858), small particles suspended in a liquid such as water undergo a rapid, irregular motion. Einstein, unaware of Brown's earlier observations, concluded from his studies that such a motion must exist. He was guided by the thought that if the liquid in which the particles are suspended is made up of atoms, they should collide with the particles and set them into motion. He found that the motion of the particles will in time experience a forward movement. Einstein proved that this forward movement is directly related to the number of atoms per gram of atomic weight. Brownian motion is to this day considered one of the most direct proofs of the existence of atoms.

The theory of relativity came from Einstein's search for a general law of nature that would explain a problem that had occurred to him when he was sixteen: if one runs at, say, 4 4 miles per hour (6.4 kilometers per hour) alongside a train that is moving at 4 4 miles per hour, the train appears to be at rest; if, on the other hand, it were possible to run alongside a ray of light, neither experiment nor theory suggests that the ray of light would appear to be at rest. Einstein realized that no matter what speed the observer is moving at, he must always observe the same velocity of light, which is roughly 186,000 miles per second (299,274 kilometers per second). He also saw that this was in agreement with a second assumption: if an observer at rest and an observer moving at constant speed carry out the same kind of experiment, they must get the same result. These two assumptions make up Einstein's special theory of relativity. Also in 1905 Einstein proved that his theory predicted that energy (E) and mass (m) are entirely related according to his famous equation, E=mc 2 . This means that the energy in any particle is equal to the particle's mass multiplied by the speed of light squared.

Academic career

These papers made Einstein famous, and universities soon began competing for his services. In 1909, after serving as a lecturer at the University of Bern, Einstein was called as an associate professor to the University of Zurich. Two years later he was appointed a full professor at the German University in Prague, Czechoslovakia. Within another year-and-a-half Einstein became a full professor at the FIT. Finally, in 1913 the well-known scientists Max Planck (1858–1947) and Walther Nernst (1864–1941) traveled to Zurich to persuade Einstein to accept a lucrative (profitable) research professorship at the University of Berlin in Germany, as well as full membership in the Prussian Academy of Science. He accepted their offer in 1914, saying, "The Germans are gambling on me as they would on a prize hen. I do not really know myself whether I shall ever really lay another egg." When he went to Berlin, his wife remained behind in Zurich with their two sons; they divorced, and Einstein married his cousin Elsa in 1917.

In 1920 Einstein was appointed to a lifelong honorary visiting professorship at the University of Leiden in Holland. In 1921 and 1922 Einstein, accompanied by Chaim Weizmann (1874–1952), the future president of the state of Israel, traveled all over the world to win support for the cause of Zionism (the establishing of an independent Jewish state). In Germany, where hatred of Jewish people was growing, the attacks on Einstein began. Philipp Lenard and Johannes Stark, both Nobel Prize–winning physicists, began referring to Einstein's theory of relativity as "Jewish physics." These kinds of attacks increased until Einstein resigned from the Prussian Academy of Science in 1933.

Career in America

On several occasions Einstein had visited the California Institute of Technology, and on his last trip to the United States he was offered a position in the newly established Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton, Massachusetts. He went there in 1933.

Einstein played a key role (1939) in the construction of the atomic bomb by signing a famous letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945). It said that the Germans had made scientific advances and that it was possible that Adolf Hitler (1889–1945, the German leader whose actions led to World War II [1939–45]), might become the first to have atomic weapons. This led to an all-out U.S. effort to construct such a bomb. Einstein was deeply shocked and saddened when his famous equation E=mc 2 was finally demonstrated in the most awesome and terrifying way by using the bomb to destroy Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945. For a long time he could only utter "Horrible, horrible."

It would be difficult to find a more suitable epitaph (a brief statement summing up a person's person's life) than the words Einstein himself used in describing his life: "God …gave me the stubbornness of a mule and nothing else; really …He also gave me a keen scent." On April 18, 1955, Einstein died in Princeton.

For More Information

Cwiklik, Robert. Albert Einstein and the Theory of Relativity. New York: Barron's Educational Series, 1987.

Goldberg, Jake. Albert Einstein. New York: Franklin Watts, 1996.

Goldenstern, Joyce. Albert Einstein: Physicist and Genius. Springfield, NJ: Enslow Publishers, 1995.

Hammontree, Marie. Albert Einstein: Young Thinker. New York: Aladdin, 1986.

Ireland, Karin. Albert Einstein. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Silver Burdett Press, 1989.

McPherson, Stephanie Sammartino. Ordinary Genius: The Story of Albert Einstein. Minneapolis: Carolrhoda Books, 1995.

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By Corey S. Powell

• May 20, 2007

In the ocean of biographies, Albert Einstein is the white whale: impossible to ignore, almost as difficult to capture, symbolic as all hell. Who could resist going after the man whose name and face have become synonymous with genius?

And go after him they do, those literary Ahabs. Amazon.com already lists more than 200 Einstein biographies and memoirs, including the superlative 1971 portrait by Ronald Clark. And here come two more. Walter Isaacson, the former managing editor of Time magazine, concocts a hearty, slightly populist take on Einstein. Jürgen Neffe, a German journalist and biochemist, embarks on a more probing, if somewhat dour, exploration in an expanded version of a biography originally published in Germany in 2005, here crisply translated by Shelley Frisch. Both authors justify themselves in part by incorporating recently unearthed bits of Einsteiniana, including a trove of personal letters released by Hebrew University last year. At a deeper level, though, these books owe their existence not to new scholarship but to an old frustration. A half-century after Einstein’s death, his theories and the mind that spawned them remain as baffling as ever to most of the public.

Isaacson opens by introducing the five landmark papers Einstein published in 1905, when the 26-year-old Bern patent clerk turned the world of physics on its head. Two of the papers put forward novel analyses of the size and motion of atoms — clever, but a sideshow to the March 1905 “On a Heuristic Point of View Concerning the Production and Transformation of Light,” which established the basis of quantum mechanics. Five years earlier, Max Planck had suggested that objects emit and absorb radiation in discrete units of energy, or quanta, but he had treated the idea primarily as a mathematical formalism. Einstein showed that, applied literally, Planck’s quanta would explain a mystery called the photoelectric effect, by which light drives electric current out of certain materials (think of a solar cell). This proposal was far more incendiary than it sounded — “a flame that would consume classical physics,” in Isaacson’s words. If light is made of particles, then its behavior can be treated statistically and the world can no longer be described by strict laws of causality — a concept so unsettling that Einstein later recoiled from it with his protest that God “does not play dice” with the universe.

The fourth 1905 paper, which introduced Einstein’s special theory of relativity, was inspired by a thought problem he had stewed over since adolescence: what would a light beam look like if you could catch up and ride alongside it? The standard thinking suggested that you would see a bizarre bit of electromagnetic field frozen in place but oscillating like mad — an answer that made no sense to him, because it suggested that the behavior of light would depend on an observer’s motion relative to some unknown, unseen frame of reference. Instead, Einstein proposed a radical solution. No matter how fast you move, he reasoned, the beam of light always appears to be fleeing at the speed of light. This argument applies across the board: the laws of physics are the same to all observers, regardless of their state of relative motion. Such a thing is possible only if space and time can bend to preserve the consistent appearance of physical laws. There is no absolute grid that defines “here,” no universal definition of “now.” Issacson quite aptly calls this “one of the most elegant imaginative steps in the history of physics.”

Neffe locates the defining moment of Einstein’s life at a later point: Nov. 6, 1919, the day when a joint session of Britain’s Royal Society and Royal Astronomical Society announced it had confirmed Einstein’s grandest idea, the general theory of relativity. According to the theory, gravity has the power to bend light, so two teams of astronomers had attempted to measure the effect on stars adjacent to the sun during a solar eclipse. Sir Frank Dyson, the Astronomer Royal, announced that the results left “no doubt” about the validity of Einstein’s prediction. (Years later it came out that the results in fact left considerable doubt, but Einstein’s boosters — like the man himself — intuitively felt that the theory must be correct.) The Times of London declared the finding “one of the most momentous, if not the most momentous, pronouncements of human thought.” Within days other salivating media around the world followed suit. In an instant, Neffe writes, “Albert Einstein was reborn as legend and myth, idol and icon of an entire era.”

The general theory of relativity was a stunning elaboration on special relativity. The first theory applied only to observations made by someone moving at a constant speed. Its successor allowed for the way the laws of physics appear to someone accelerating or decelerating — the more “general” case. Again, a thought problem proved crucial. When a worker falls off the roof, he momentarily does not feel the pull of gravity. Why? In that prosaic question, Einstein perceived a stark physical truth, the equivalence between gravity and acceleration. The worker normally feels weight because of gravity, which is really just a constant downward acceleration. If nothing resists it, as during a fall, that feeling goes away. Einstein flipped the situation around and considered a man in an elevator floating in space. Accelerate the elevator upward and he, too, would feel a downward acceleration — not just similar to gravity, but indistinguishable from it. Gravity is not a force pulling us down onto the planet, as Newton pictured it. Rather, it is more accurately thought of as a warp, induced by Earth’s mass, that causes our path through space-time to push us against the ground. “Gravitation is geometry,” in Neffe’s words. It defines the shape of space and time; without matter, space and time would have no meaning.

These are some of the most powerful ideas in all of science, and both Isaacson and Neffe present them with brio and insight. Neffe does an especially thorough job tracing their origins in Einstein’s early obsessions, and he shows how completely the latest cosmic theories are constructed atop general relativity. Unfortunately, his theme-driven structure gets distractingly convoluted in places. Isaacson’s more straightforward chronological approach and conversational style are much livelier. If any 600-page book about relativity can be described as a page-turner, “Einstein: His Life and Universe” is it.

The two books diverge more seriously in their interpretation of the personality behind the science. Isaacson’s Einstein is a resilient humanist who managed to adapt to tough political realities without sacrificing his core beliefs in freedom and social equality. Neffe’s Einstein is more of a naïve idealist, repeatedly drawn to (and burned by) ill-advised causes. After attaining United States citizenship in 1940 and becoming an outspoken one-worlder after World War II, Einstein was closely monitored by J. Edgar Hoover’s F.B.I. To Isaacson, Einstein rose above these suspicions and became a true American, one who “considered his opposition to the wave of security and loyalty investigations to be a defense of the nation’s true values.” To Neffe, who views the United States from a distinctively German perspective, Einstein “shed any illusions about a freedom-loving America” and spent his last years increasingly isolated from both colleagues and countrymen.

The disparate moods extend to the inevitable dishing about Einstein’s love life. We now know that before their marriage, Einstein and his first wife, Mileva Maric, had an illegitimate daughter, named Lieserl, whom he abandoned to an unknown fate. He had multiple affairs, including one with Margarita Konenkova, a reputed Soviet spy. Einstein’s marriage to Maric, a fellow student from the Zurich Polytechnic whose own hopes for a significant scientific career were frustrated, was stormy and at times astonishingly cruel. His second marriage, to his cousin Elsa, was often resolutely pragmatic. Isaacson generally emphasizes Einstein’s compensating warmth, while Neffe focuses on the chill. A telling moment comes in the two accounts of perhaps the most squalid of the recent revelations: a letter from Elsa’s daughter, Ilse, claiming that Einstein had dallied with both mother and daughter and left it to them to decide which would become his bride. Neffe hastily denounces Einstein’s behavior as “one of the most humiliating ways in which a man could treat a woman.” Isaacson has the good sense to examine the sole source of the story: a letter that Ilse wrote to her unsteady boyfriend, whom she quite possibly was trying to bait with a salacious fabrication.

I wish Isaacson had had the courage to take another step back and, in the spirit of Einstein, ask the big underlying question: what do these feet-of-clay stories really tell us about Einstein’s mind, and about the broader nature of genius? Each revelation about his romantic misadventures has generated a chorus of gleefully clucking news coverage. But why is it so thrilling to learn that Einstein was a human being who sometimes made foolish or impulsive decisions? There is a whiff of the Us magazine ethos at work here: “Einstein — he’s just like us!”

In truth, Einstein was not even like other physicists. “I have no special talents,” he once insisted to his friend Carl Seelig. “I am only passionately curious.” But as Isaacson points out, passionate curiosity was Einstein’s special gift. He brooded over fundamental mysteries of nature that most of his colleagues ignored, and dissected them with the kind of relentless questioning more commonly associated with a small child. He maintained his focus for astounding durations: 10 years on special relativity, eight on general relativity, and more than three decades on the “unified field” theory that he hoped would knit together all of physics.

All of this was not effortless. Neffe’s description of Einstein as a man of “profound, shocking loneliness” may be an exaggeration, but it touches on the very real price he paid for his singular imagination. Isaacson, in a self-proclaimed effort to make Einstein’s ideas accessible to “a responsible citizenry,” writes that the pursuit of science is “an enchanting mission, as the sagas of its heroes remind us.” Einstein’s relentless dedication to the life of the mind was not just enchanting, however; it eroded his marriages, distanced his children, even dissuaded students who could continue his work.

Today’s research environment, with its emphasis on collaboration, consistent publication and competition for funding, is in many ways antithetical to the way Einstein worked. The physicist Lee Smolin has noted that no scientists today call themselves Einsteinians, because “most of us have neither the courage nor the patience to emulate Einstein.” For the few out there who do, the new Einstein biographies can function as a call to greatness. For the rest of us, the most precious thing they offer is a taste of what Einstein called the “cosmic religious sense,” a connectedness to universal truth that he considered the highest expression of being human.

Corey S. Powell is the executive editor of Discover magazine.

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“That is true, even when nobody has yet succeeded in being somebody else.”

Albert Einstein, 1947

Albert Einstein was born on March 14, 1879 in Ulm, the first child of the Jewish couple Hermann and Pauline Einstein, née Koch. In June 1880 the family moved to Munich where Hermann Einstein and his brother Jakob founded the electrical engineering company Einstein & Cie. Albert Einstein’s sister Maria, called Maja, was born on November 18, 1881. Einstein’s childhood was a normal one, except that to his family’s irritation, he learnt to speak at a late age. Beginning in 1884 he received private education in order to get prepared for school. 1885 he started learning to play violin. Beginning in 1885 he received his primary education at a Catholic school in Munich (Petersschule); in 1888 he changed over to the Luitpold-Gymnasium, also in Munich. However, as this education was not to his liking and, in addition, he did not get along with his form-master he left this school in 1894 without a degree and joined his family in Italy where they had settled meanwhile.

In order to be admitted to study at the “Eidgenoessische Polytechnische Schule” (later renamed ETH) in Zurich, Einstein took his entrance examination in October 1895. However, some of his results were insufficient and, following the advice of the rector, he attended the “Kantonsschule” in the town of Aarau in order to improve his knowledge. In early October 1896 he received his school-leaving certificate and shortly thereafter enrolled at the Eidgenoessische Polytechnische Schule with the goal of becoming a teacher in Mathematics and Physics. Einstein, being an average student, finished his studies with a diploma degree in July 1900. He then applied, without success, for assistantships at the Polytechnische Schule and other universities. Meanwhile he had abandoned the German citizenship and formally applied for the Swiss one which he was granted on February 21, 1901.

Search for employment continued. Between May 1901 and January 1902 he was teacher in Winterthur and Schaffhausen. Afterwards he moved to the Swiss capital Bern. In order to make his living, he gave private lessons in mathematics and physics. At this time also the Bernese “Akademie Olympia” was founded by Albert Einstein, Maurice Solovine and Conrad Habicht. During meetings in the evening scientific and philosophical questions were discussed. Einstein himself noted that this academy was beneficial for his career and even when he already lived in the US, he remained a loyal member.

In January 1902 Lieserl, daughter of Einstein and Mileva Maric, a former fellow-student, was born in Hungary. That Einstein had an illegitimate child has been only learned a few years ago when private letters mentioning this child were published. Nothing is known about the life of Einstein’s daughter; probably she was released to become adopted. At the end of 1902 Einstein’s father died in Milan. On January 6, 1903 he married Mileva Maric – against the wills of both families. In May 1904 Einstein’s first son, Hans Albert, was born and in July 1910 his second son, Eduard.

Through mediation of a former fellow-student, Marcel Grossmann, in December 1901 Einstein applied for a position at the Bernese patent-office which he was granted, initially for a time of probation only. Beginning on June 23, 1902 he became technical expert, third class, at this office. Despite of the work associated with this position he found time for further research in theoretical physics.

Einstein’s Dissertation:

“Eine neue Bestimmung der Moleküldimensionen”

“A New Determination of Molecular Dimensions”

Dedication “Meinem Freunde Herrn Dr. Marcel Grossmann”

Bern, 30. April 1905

Published by: Buchdruckerei K. J. Wyss, Bern (1906)

Slightly revised version published in Annalen der Physik, Band 19 (1906), page 289 – 305

In April 1905 Einstein submitted his doctoral thesis “A New Determination of Molecular Dimensions” to the university in Zurich which was accepted in July. During this same year he published four pioneering papers in the scientific magazine “Annalen der Physik” which revolutionized physics around the turn of the century. Three of the papers will be briefly mentioned here: In the first article “On A Heuristic Point of View Concerning the Production and Transformation of Light” Einstein proposed that electromagnetic radiation must consist of quantums or photons. Even though this theory is capable of explaining – among other things – the photoelectric effect it was at first rejected by physicists, namely by the pioneer of modern physics, Max Planck, later, however, confirmed by him and adopted. This work became the foundation of a quantum theory and for this in particular Einstein received the Nobel Prize for the year 1921. The paper “On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies” delineates the principles of special relativity which deals with questions of objects as part of different coordination systems moving with constant speed relative to each other. It resulted in a new interpretation of the conception of space and time and relies on the constancy of the speed of light and the principle of relativity which postulates that it is impossible to determine motions in an absolute way. Shortly thereafter the paper “Does the Inertia of a Body Depend upon its Energy Content?” was published. It contains the famous equation “E = m · c 2 ” stating the equivalence of mass and energy. Through these publications Einstein attracted the attention of the scientific community. At the end of 1906 he published the paper “Planck’s Theory of Radiation and the Theory of Specific Heat” which can be regarded as being the first publication on the quantum theory of the solid state.

In April 1906 Einstein was promoted to technical expert, second class, at the patent-office in Bern. His “Habilitation” (in the German-speaking countries a thesis to be submitted in order to be eligible for a position at the professorial level at the university) things did not go so well. His first application was turned down in 1907 by the university of Bern. In early 1908, however, he was successful and at the end of the same year he gave his first lecture. Einstein had decided that he wanted to devote his time entirely to science; hence, he gave up his position at the patent-office in October 1909 and in the same month he started to work as “Ausserordentlicher Professor” (adjunct professor) of theoretical physics at the university of Zurich. In 1911 Einstein was offered a chair at the German university in Prague which he took on. However, already one year thereafter he returned to Switzerland after having been offered a professorial position at the ETH.

Impressed by Einstein’s achievements, Max Planck and the physical chemist Walther Nernst attempted to lure the young Einstein to Berlin, then stronghold of natural sciences. They wanted to make him a member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences, offer him a professorial position without teaching responsibilities at Berlin university and make him the head of the – still to be founded – Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institute of Physics. For Einstein this offer was so tempting that he accepted and in April 1914 moved to Berlin with his family. On July 2nd, 1914, he gave his inaugural lecture at the Prussian Academy.

Contrary to his professional advance, Einstein’s marriage did not go well. In consequence, already in July 1914 his wife and children returned to Zurich. As Einstein was not willing to keep up his marriage with Mileva they became divorced in February 1919. From 1917 on Einstein became sick, suffering from various diseases resulting in a general weakness which lasted until 1920. Throughout this time he was under the loving care of his cousin Elsa Loewenthal. They fell in love with each other and on June 2nd, 1919, he married Elsa who had already two daughters, Ilse and Margot, from her first marriage. The couple then lived to Haberlandstrasse 5 in Berlin.

Apart from all his work Einstein still found time for playing music. Since his youth he played the violin and later he frequently was seen on the street carrying his violin case. He was an admirer of Bach and Mozart and, through continuous practice, he became a good violinist. Apart from his love for music he was a devoted sailor. Doing this just for fun, here did he find the time to think about problems of physics.

From 1909 to 1916 Albert Einstein worked on a generalization of his Special Theory of Relativity. The results of his efforts were published in March 1916 in the paper “The Foundation of the General Theory of Relativity”. This theory investigates coordination systems which experience acceleration relative to each other and also the influence of gravitational fields to time and space. Whereas the Special Theory of Relativity was still intelligible to the layman, this did not apply to the General Theory of Relativity. Moreover, due to the relatively small relativistic effects, this theory was difficult to verify experimentally. Einstein – or his General Theory of Relativity – predicted the perihelion motion of mercury, the gravitational red shift as well as the deflection of light in a gravitational field. He was convinced that light deflection by the gravitational field of the sun could be observed during a total solar eclipse. After several failed observations of total solar eclipses proof came in 1919: On May 29 of that year the English astronomer Arthur Stanley Eddington confirmed Einstein’s prediction of light deflection when he observed a total solar eclipse on the volcanic island of Principe in the Gulf of Guinea in western Africa. A second expedition, led by Andrew Crommelin, observed this eclipse in Sobral, Brazil.

On September 22, 1919 Einstein received a telegram from the Dutch physician and Nobel laureate Hendrik Antoon Lorentz. It said: “Eddington found star displacement at rim of sun preliminary measurements between nine-tenth of a second and twice that value Lorentz”

A few days later, on September 27, Albert Einstein wrote a postcard to his mother: “… Joyous news today. H. A. Lorentz telegraphed that the English expeditions have actually measured the deflection of starlight from the sun.”

“During a total solar eclipse the sun is completely covered by the moon passing between the sun and Earth. Due to the relatively stringent conditions for the constellation of the moon between Earth and the sun, a total solar eclipse is very rare.” (German Aerospace Center DLR)

The official result of these expeditions was announced on November 6, 1919 during a joint meeting of the Royal Society and the Royal Astronomical Society in London. Thereby Einstein had become the successor of the great Isaac Newton. Joseph John Thomson, president of the Royal Society, stated solemnly “This is the most important result related to the theory of gravitation since the days of Newton…This result is among the greatest achievements of human thinking.” This confirmation of the predictions made by the General Theory of Relativity made Einstein world-famous and not only among scientists. The perihelion motion of mercury and the gravitational red shift were also gloriously confirmed experimentally.

Now Einstein and his Theory of Relativity were much talked of. He received invitations and honours from all the world. There was rarely a magazine which did not report on his achievements with the highest praise. On the other hand, since 1920 Einstein and his Theory of Relativity became subject to vigorous attacks which mostly were founded on anti-Semitism. Even Nobel-prize laureates like Philipp Lenard and Johannes Stark publicly took up a hostile attitude towards Einstein and his theory and pleaded for a “German physics”.

In Lenard’s four-volume work of 1936/37 “Deutsche Physik” (German Physics), written on the basis of classical physics of the 19th century and with the accentuation on experimental physics, the theoretical i.e. Jewish physics was almost completely rejected.

Philipp Lenard: “Deutsche Physik” (German Physics)

Volume 1: Einleitung und Mechanik (Introduction and mechanics) Volume 2: Akustik und Wärmelehre (Acoustics and thermodynamics) Volume 3: Optik, Elektrostatik und Anfänge der Elektrodynamik (Optics, electrostatics and beginnings of electrodynamics) Volume 4: Magnetismus, Elektrodynamik und Anfänge von Weiterem (Magnetism, electrodynamics and beginnings of further physics)

In February 1920 Einstein’s mother died in Berlin. Between 1921 and 1923 he travelled, among others, to the US, Britain, France, Japan and Palestine. Since that time he began commenting on political issues more and more frequently, based on a pacifist point of view. In 1922 Einstein became member of the League of Nations’ International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation which he left one year later even though he supported the aims of the League of Nations. With a revived belief in the ideals of this organisation Einstein re-joined the commission in May 1924. Opposed to any kind of violence Einstein supported pacifist movements whenever he had the chance. In addition, he supported the cause of the Zionists. He spoke up for the Hebrew University to be founded in Jerusalem to which he later also bequeathed his entire written legacy. In November 1952 Einstein even received the offer to become President of Israel which, however, he turned down.

As the consequence of overworking, in 1928 Einstein developed a heart disease which took him almost a year to recover from. In 1929 after his 50th birthday he built a summer house in the municipality of Caputh where he lived with his family each year between spring and late autumn until the December of 1932.

From 1920 onwards Einstein was working towards a unified field theory which, apart from gravitation, was also to include electrodynamics. This research would last until his death and remained unsuccessful. During the first decade of work towards the unified field theory he was still being supported by colleagues which, however, after having lost their faith in being able to resolve this mystery, turned to other problems such as the theory of the new microcosm or quantum mechanics. Niels Bohr, founder of the so-called Copenhagen School, Max Born, and – from the then young generation – Werner Heisenberg and Wolfgang Pauli among others became the physicists to develop quantum mechanics. Einstein thus became a single fighter and gradually scientifically isolated which, however, did not seem to bother him much. His way into isolation was magnified as Einstein was unable to accept quantum mechanics and constantly exercised his criticism. In particular, he was opposed to the probabilities which were applied in this theory. In this context we have to understand his well-known quotation “God does not throw the dice”. However, as far as quantum mechanics is concerned, Einstein was wrong because at present this theory is as widely applied in physics as are Einstein’s theories of relativity.

When Einstein and his wife left Caputh in December 1932 to hold a third series of lectures in the US the political situation in Germany had drastically changed for the worse. In the 1932 elections the Nazis had become the strongest political party and in January 1933 Hitler seized power. As the consequence of the crimes of the Nazis during the “Third Reich” Einstein never again set his foot on German soil. In March 1933 he resigned from the Prussian Academy of Sciences and cut off all contacts with any German institution he ever had dealt with.

Albert Einstein found a new home in the US. From November 1933 on he worked at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton, New Jersey, where in 1935 he and his wife bought a house in 112, Mercer Street. In December 1936 Einstein’s wife Elsa died. In 1939 his sister Maja moved to his house where she stayed until her death in 1951.

Since 1939 Europe was on war. Horrified by the imagination that scientists in Germany were working on an atomic bomb, on August 2, 1939 Einstein signed a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt in order to draw his attention to the atomic danger. In this letter he pointed the President to the military possibilities of atomic energy and encouraged him to intensity US research into nuclear techniques. This remained his only participation in connection with the atomic bomb.

On October 1, 1940 Einstein was sworn in as American citizen, keeping however also his Swiss citizenship. In a public letter to the United Nations in 1946 Einstein proposed to install a world government in which he saw the only chance for a durable peace. In the following years he intensified these endeavours.

In August 1948 Einstein’s first wife, Mileva Maric, died in Zurich. He himself had to undergo abdominal surgery in the same year. In March 1950 he declared his will, making his secretary Helen Dukas and Dr. Otto Nathan jointly to his executors. On April 15, 1955 Einstein was transported to hospital in Princeton because he had severe pain. The diagnosis was a ruptured aneurysm of his abdominal aorta. As a consequence of this illness Albert Einstein died at the age of 76 at 1:15 a.m. on April 18, 1955. Following his wish his remains were cremated the same day and the ashes were about two weeks later put down at an unknown place. Science had lost one of his foremost thinkers and the world had lost a fighter for peace and freedom.

Illustrations Credits: Bildarchiv ETH-Bibliothek, Zurich : 1, 3 Archive of the author: 2, 4, 7 Alexander Küpper, Cologne: 5 German Aerospace Center DLR : 6 Albert Einstein Society, Bern : 8

Bibliography:

Bottle Buddies? What in the World is a Bottle Buddy?

by Paula | Jan 5, 2020 | Random Thoughts , Toys | 2 comments

Every time my kids come home with a project sheet, I immediately start to panic!  What will they need to create this time?  I close my eyes and chant “please let it be a poster, please let it be a poster.”  That’s what I’m good at – helping them make posters!  All other projects scare me.  They all seem to require some sort of creative sewing skills, of which I have NONE!

So when Zach brought home his project sheet a couple of weeks ago, I did my normal “please let it be a poster” chant, but no such luck!  This project was called “Bottle Buddies,” and it was due in one week!  What??  What in the world is a Bottle Buddy?

I sat down with Zach, and it said that he needed to convert a 2-liter soda bottle into his character – Daniel Boone!  You want me to help him convert a 2-liter soda bottle into Daniel Boone?  Oh my…  This was going to be “fun”!

The directions were pretty easy…  The assignment sheet said “Make a bottle buddy – use a 2-liter bottle for the body and a painted 4″ styrofoam ball (found at Hobby Lobby, Wal-mart or other craft stores) for the head.  Fill the bottom with 2 inches of sand or dirt.  Make the bottle look like your person.”

I was okay with everything except “make the bottle look like your person.”  First of all, what did Daniel Boone look like?  And second of all, I don’t sew, so how were we going to dress him??

It went on to say “To make your bottle look like your person use any material available: felt, paint, fabric, rocks, sticks, hats, construction paper, aluminum foil, etc… to create their costume and props.”  Okay…well we all  know that you don’t want your child to be the one who takes in a bottle covered in aluminum foil – you win the “Epic Mom Fail Award” if you do something that simple.  So panic set in…

Zach and I started by talking about who Daniel Boone was, and then went to the computer to Google him for some facts and a picture!  It was all gonna be okay, right?  We printed out a couple of pictures of Daniel and discussed how Zach wanted to dress him up.

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“Well, he is a frontiersman, so he needs to have on something made out of leather with fringy sleeves, and I want him to hold his rifle.  He’s famous for his rifle too – he named it ‘tick-licker’ and he needs a coon-skin cap.”  Okay…my mind was reeling.  Where would I find a rifle to attach to a 2-liter bottle, and where would I find a very small coon skin cap?  Let the fun begin…

For those of you who (like me) are NOT crafty with a needle and thread, these kinds of projects are unnerving!  I was thinking I’d just go to my neighbor next door – a very accomplished seamstress, and beg and plead!

“Can you please sew me a leather fringy outfit that will make this 2-liter bottle look like Daniel Boone?”  Once I realized how pathetic and ridiculous that sounded, I pulled myself together and decided that Zach and I could do this thing…

We headed upstairs to my art closet!  Yes…I have an entire closet devoted to art supplies – poster board, paints, googly eyes, hot glue, and all kinds of fabric scraps!  I keep my closet stocked for projects like this one.  But I do not keep styrofoam balls, so I headed off to Hobby Lobby while Zach was at school to begin my search for Daniel Boone’s head!

I’m always happy to go to Hobby Lobby – I can roam the aisles for hours, so I was glad to have this on my list of things to do…  I quickly found the styrofoam ball I needed, but then I had to find the right kind of paint.  According to the Hobby Lobby worker, “the wrong kind of paint will dissolve this styrofoam!”  Dissolve Daniel Boone’s head?  Yikes…

She led me to the spray paint aisle, and I picked out a very nice peach color to transform the green styrofoam ball into Daniel Boone’s head.  Well…when Zach spray painted the head that afternoon, he decided that the color I chose looked too orange.  “He looks like a pumpkin,” Zach told me.  “I need some white paint.”

So…off to Hobby Lobby we went and picked up white spray paint to try again.  So please direct your comments about the color of the Bottle Buddy’s head to Zach – not me!  And don’t even get me started on the fact that Daniel Boone does not have a nose.  But after all…it is Zach’s project.  If he chooses not to put a nose on his Bottle Buddy, there’s not much I can do about it…  And believe me, I tried to convince him to add a nose to OUR (I mean HIS) Bottle Buddy project.  (As a former school teacher, I sometimes find it hard to let go and let him be in charge of his projects, when I could totally do it all by myself!)

We were not able to find a coon-skin cap at the store, but my favorite “place” in the world, Amazon.com, did in fact have several coon-skin caps to choose from.  So we added it to our cart and had it sent immediately.

Luckily, I’m an Amazon Prime customer, so the coon-skin cap arrived in just 2 days!  We had all of our supplies (except the hat), and we were ready to begin – the glue gun was all warmed up.  One of my many glue guns!  I have found that you can never have too many of these when you have school-aged kids (especially if you don’t sew)…

Zach decided he wanted Daniel Boone to wear a short sleeve tan shirt, so he traced a pattern on the felt and he cut out 2 pieces.  Perfect fit, so we hot glued them together.  He only burned one finger and handed the glue-gun fun over to me…  “I’ll hold the material, you work the glue gun.  That glue is really hot!”  Yep…

Daniel’s shirt was on, we wrapped some dark brown felt to the bottom of the bottle for his legs, made him a belt out of some rope, and Zach made a frontiersman necklace for Daniel from a kit I had picked up at Hobby Lobby.  We were well on our way…

Then Zach looked at the printed picture again, and decided he wanted Daniel to be wearing long sleeves with fringe, so we hot glued some more felt to the short sleeves – look closely and you can see my lack of sewing skills!  Zach glued on googly eyes and cut out a mouth, and this is when he decided that his Bottle Buddy didn’t need a nose.  Whatever…

Now all we had to do was hope that the coon-skin cap would make it in time!  While we were waiting, I learned quite a bit about Daniel Boone.  I was surprised by all the little details Zach knew about him.

He was born in 1734 and was known as an American pioneer, explorer, and frontiersman.  All of his adventures as a frontiersman made him one of the first folk heroes from the United States.

Boone explored lots of land, and settled the village of Boonesborough, Kentucky – one of the first American settlements west of the Appalachians.

He was an officer in the Revolutionary War, and he was captured by Shawnee warriors in 1778, but he was able to escape and warn settlers that the Shawnee were planning an attack.

To this day, Boone remains an iconic figure in American history.  He was considered a legend in his own lifetime, and an account of his adventures was published by John Filson in 1784.  He became famous across the United States and Europe.

After he died, Daniel Boone became the subject of many tall tales and fictional stories.  In American culture, he is remembered as one of the earliest frontiersman.  Zach knew so many interesting facts about him, but he really loved the story of his rifle named Tick Licker. “Tick Licker” was a gift from his gunsmith older brother and it is said that he boasted of his marksmanship saying he could shoot a tick off an animal without hurting the beast.

Enough about Daniel Boone.  Back to me and Zach…  We survived a project that wasn’t a poster!  Zach was very proud of his finished Bottle Buddy.  I was too!  I was so happy that his teacher allowed me to come up to the classroom to take pictures of the other Bottle Buddies.  I was eager to see how Daniel Boone compared to them…

I was so pleased with Zach’s buddy.  They were all great, but of course I was most impressed with Zach’s.  Maybe because I had invested lots of time too – burning my fingers, and trying not to cringe when he told me Daniel Boone did not need a nose.

And it wasn’t until after this project that we read that Daniel Boone wore a black felt hat – not a coon skin cap.  Oh well…I’m sure we all agree that the coon skin cap looks better!

If you get a project sheet like this one, check out Pinterest .  They had several pictures of Bottle Buddies too!  But be careful….there are some over-achievers on Pinterest!  I suggest keeping it simple and have some fun.  Just be careful with the glue gun.  It’s not called a Hot Glue Gun for nothing!  Until next time…

If you’re like me, and you never have the right craft supplies, you’re going to need one of these arts and crafts supply centers like the one below!  It comes with so many crafting treasures.  The kit includes pom-poms, google eyes, stickers, pipe cleaners, and much more!  And…even better than all the treasures, it stores them neatly in these little plastic drawers.  When you run out of something, you can easily order more supplies to fill the drawers again and again!  As my kids have gotten older, the supplies have changed quite a bit, but they always will know where to find what they need for their school posters and projects! And don’t forget your hot glue gun…

If you need help with photos of your school projects or if it’s time for updated pictures of your family, you can find me and my camera over at Paula Mason Photography . I’d be happy to help you with any photography projects!

Until next time…

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What kind of paint did you use for painting the face. I just don’t want to ruin the head….

Wish I could remember the name – – I had a long conversation with an employee at Hobby Lobby. They know a lot about paint. Apparently, some of the paints will melt the styrofoam!

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Two Books on Einstein and the World He Made

A lbert Einstein is one of the most written-about figures of the 20th century, and for good reason. His theories upended the system that physicists had used to describe the world since Newton. Along the way, he became a figure of public fascination—a true celebrity. Now two books further scrutinize different aspects of the man.

Samuel Graydon’s “Einstein in Time and Space” is not an exhaustive biography. Instead it presents 99 vignettes, most of them one to three pages long, that highlight key qualities of this complex person: the curious child, the rebellious student, the serial adulterer, the wily prankster, the loyal friend, the civil-rights defender, the intellect unsurpassed in his time. Mr. Graydon, the science editor at the Times Literary Supplement, has chosen his number of chapters in a playful homage to the atomic number of the element einsteinium.

Even if readers are familiar with these stories, Mr. Graydon’s approach often delivers a fresh take on episodes not strongly emphasized in other biographies. Here is Einstein the engineer patenting a unique refrigerator design and a hearing aid. There he is building a miniature cable car out of matchboxes for his young son Hans. “That was one of the nicest toys I had,” Hans later recalled.

As a correspondent, Einstein could be quite impish: “So, what are you up to, you frozen whale, you smoked, dried, canned piece of soul, or whatever else I would like to hurl at your head?” he once wrote to a friend. While starting his career in Bern, Switzerland, the young physicist formed a little club called the Olympia Academy with two friends to discuss science and philosophy. “Einstein, despite being the youngest,” writes Mr. Graydon, “was elected president, earning him the title ‘Albert Ritter von Steissbein’ (roughly, ‘Sir Albert, Knight of Backside’). A certificate was made up, featuring a drawing of a bust of Einstein beneath a string of sausages.”

Mr. Graydon’s stated goal is to point out “the inconsistencies inherent in a life, the inexplicable, incompatible, insane motivations that punctuate days and years.” The author notes how Einstein, a devoted pacifist, maintained a close friendship with the German chemist Fritz Haber, who pioneered the use of both chlorine and mustard gas during World War I. He observes that the deep thinker didn’t pass up the chance to party with the movie stars Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks when out in California.

The book also includes moments of quiet dignity, such as the story of the black contralto Marian Anderson, who had been invited in 1937 to give a concert at Princeton University but was denied a room at the local hotel due to her race. Einstein simply prepared a room for her at his home, an invitation that was extended from that day forward whenever she visited the town.

Mr. Graydon has woven from these separate strands a compelling and beautifully written narrative, though I have one caveat. In his acknowledgments, the author admits that he “lightly fictionalized” a few chapters about representative days at Einstein’s office. Given the wealth of material on hand, a summary of Einstein’s life hardly needs any false embellishments.

While “Einstein in Time and Space” primarily concentrates on Einstein’s personal experiences, Hanoch Gutfreund and Jürgen Renn’s “The Einsteinian Revolution” delves deeply into his science. Mr. Gutfreund, the academic director of the Albert Einstein Archives at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Mr. Renn, the director of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin, have written extensively on Einstein and with this book take on a particular challenge: “to dispel the popular myth that Albert Einstein, the unconventional scientific genius, instigated an overwhelming scientific revolution through pure thought alone.” They succeed in that goal, along the way providing an excellent overview of Einstein’s major discoveries, from his early work on quantum theory to general relativity, the new law of gravity that overturned Newton. It is a welcome addition to any collection of books on modern physics.

A true understanding of Einstein’s accomplishments, they write, demands a revision of the legendary concept of the “paradigm shift.” The notion was introduced in 1962 by the historian of science Thomas Kuhn, who argued that a scientific revolution suddenly replaces a previous system of knowledge with a new one unconnected to the past. But Messrs. Gutfreund and Renn prefer to view Einstein’s work as an evolutionary process, where the new system is built upon the scientific scaffolding already in place.

In the late 19th century, that scaffolding was constructed around three dominant areas of physics: mechanics, thermodynamics and electromagnetism. Troubling puzzles were beginning to arise at the intersections between these fields, and many scientists attempted to find solutions within their own isolated specialties. But Einstein—with his deep reading of the scientific literature and the philosophy of science, his constant dialogues with scientific friends, and his careful attention to new experimental discoveries—stood above those boundaries, enabling him to perceive an entirely new vista.

The authors provide a detailed examination of Einstein’s annus mirabilis in 1905, when he recognized that light can act like a particle as well as a wave; proved that atoms exist; linked matter with energy in that celebrated equation E=mc2; and, with the special theory of relativity, swept away the idea that we live in a fixed space governed by a universal clock.

Before these discoveries, the authors note, the Dutch physicist Hendrik Lorentz had developed a mathematical scheme to explain the behavior of charged particles moving through the ether—the medium that supposedly permeates physical space to allow light to travel. Lorentz’s equations foresaw many of the phenomena later explained by special relativity. But his physical interpretation, complicated and full of assumptions, was still rooted in classical physics. Einstein jettisoned this kludge by doing away with the ether, recognizing that space and time are not absolute and declaring that the speed of light is a constant whether a body is stationary or in motion.

Einstein didn’t arrive at this solution in a single eureka moment. It was the result of deep reflection over the years, influenced by such philosophers as David Hume, who questioned the causal relations between events; Ernst Mach, who objected to Newton’s idea of absolute space; and Henri Poincaré, who early on noted the possible relativity of time. Einstein stood upon the shoulders of giants to gain his new perspective.

While “The Einsteinian Revolution” is written for a general audience, a background in physics helps make certain sections more accessible. Yet the authors’ overall thesis is clear and convincing. “The substance of Einstein’s work was not new,” they stress, “but rather was the result of an accumulation of knowledge over centuries; it was his conceptual organization that was new.” Their book, along with Mr. Graydon’s “Einstein in Time and Space,” enhances our understanding of both a great scientist and an exemplary humanist.

Ms. Bartusiak is a professor emeritus at MIT and the author of “Einstein’s Unfinished Symphony.”

Meet Jean Tatlock: The Woman Oppenheimer Loved

Before he became the father of the atomic bomb, Oppenheimer passionately loved a graduate student he met during his time as a physics professor.

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Her name was Jean Tatlock, and just as she captured the famed physicist’s heart, their romance has captured the imaginations of historians for nearly a century. And they aren’t the only ones. Tatlock was portrayed by Florence Pugh , alongside Cillian Murphy ’s Oppenheimer, in the 2023 film Oppenheimer , directed by Christopher Nolan . The movie won five Golden Globe Awards on Sunday, including Best Motion Picture - Drama, and is expected to garner several Oscar nominations later this month.

Watch Oppenheimer on Amazon Prime Video , Apple TV+ , or Vudu .

Affiliated with the Communist Party, Tatlock is often credited with introducing Oppenheimer to radical politics, something that haunted him in his later life and career. Despite their 10-year age gap, and though they were separated by the time he led the famous Manhattan Project, Tatlock had an undeniable impact on Oppenheimer’s life, and her tragic death weighed on him as he began his work on the atomic bomb.

“A free-spirited woman with a hungry, poetic mind, she was always the one person in the room, whatever the circumstances, who remained unforgettable,” according to American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin.

Meeting Oppenheimer

Born in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1914, Tatlock was the second child of J.S.P. Tatlock and Marjorie Fenton. Her father, who had a docorate from Harvard University, was an acclaimed English professor and literary scholar and was considered a foremost expert on the works of Geoffrey Chaucer , according to Brotherhood of the Bomb by Gregg Herken.

Jean inherited her father’s intellect. Before attending Vassar College in 1931, she took a year off to travel in Europe, staying with a friend in Switzerland who was a devoted follower of psychologist Carl Jung . After meeting a close-knit community of psychoanalysts during the trip, she decided to study psychology herself, according to Bird and Sherwin.

After graduating from Vassar in 1935, she studied at the Stanford Medical School, where her intellect and good looks intimidated the other classmates. They also caught the interest of Oppenheimer, then a physics professor at the University of California, Berkeley, where Tatlock completed her prerequisites before enrolling at Stanford.

Oppenheimer and Tatlock began a passionate and intense romance in 1936, when she was 22 and he was 32. The decade age gap didn’t seem to matter. A friend described Tatlock as Oppenheimer’s “truest love” and said he was “devoted to her,” according to Bird and Sherwin. He reportedly proposed to Tatlock twice, though she turned him down.

Tatlock was impressed with Oppenheimer’s knowledge of English literature, and she introduced him to the poetry of John Donne . It’s widely believed the Trinity test—the first detonation of the nuclear weapon in 1945—was named after a Donne poem and inspired by Tatlock, according to The First Atomic Bomb by Janet Farrell Brodie.

Communist Affiliations

Tatlock was a dues-paying member of the Communist Party of the United States of America while dating Oppenheimer, an association that would later bring a great deal of scrutiny to the famed physicist. Tatlock wrote for the Western Worker , a major West Coast communist publication, and she introduced him to several prominent members of the party, according to Robert Oppenheimer: A Life Inside the Center by Ray Monk.

“I find I am a complete Red when anything at all,” Tatlock wrote to a friend, according to American Prometheus . She also pushed Oppenheimer to move from mere theory to action, and when he commented that he would have to settle for staying on the periphery of political struggles, Tatlock remarked, “Oh, for God’s sake, don’t settle for anything.”

However, Oppenheimer denied that Tatlock was solely responsible for his political interests or affiliations, noting that he first read about Soviet communism after his father lent him a book on the subject before he met Tatlock. According to Bird and Sherwin’s American Prometheus , Oppenheimer described Tatlock’s communist involvement as “on-again, off-again affairs and never seemed to provide for her what she was seeking. I do not believe that her interests were really political.”

From 1939 onward, Oppenheimer claimed he only saw Tatlock on rare occasions, and in 1940, he wed Katherine Puening, more commonly known as Kitty Oppenheimer, to whom he was married the rest of his life. However, he and Tatlock remained “the closest of friends and occasional lovers,” according to Bird and Sherwin, and she would phone him for comfort during her occasional bouts of depression.

By 1943, Tatlock was a pediatric psychiatrist at Mount Zion Hospital in San Francisco, at the start of what seemed to be a promising career. The 29-year-old was also being treated for clinical depression, which might have worsened when Oppenheimer drastically reduced contact with her after becoming director of the Los Alamos Laboratory that year, according to Bird and Sherwin.

A Tragic Death

Tatlock was placed under surveillance by the FBI due to her relationship with Oppenheimer and past involvement with communist politics. When Tatlock and Oppenheimer had one last meeting in June 1943, she confessed that she still loved him and wanted to be with him. Unbeknownst to her, FBI agents monitored the entire visit, according to Monk’s biography.

“For reasons of love and compassion, he had become a key member of Jean’s psychological support structure—and then he had vanished, mysteriously,” Bird and Sherwin wrote in American Prometheus . “In Jean’s eyes, it may have seemed as if ambition had trumped love.”

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Tatlock died by suicide on January 4, 1944, at age 29. Her father discovered her body after entering her San Francisco apartment through a window after she didn’t respond to the doorbell. He found her lying in the bathroom, her head submerged in a partially-filled bathtub, with a suicide note on the dining room table, according to Monk.

“I am disgusted with everything,” the note read, according to Bird and Sherwin. “To those who loved me and helped me, all love and courage. I wanted to live and to give and I got paralyzed somehow. I tried like hell to understand and couldn’t.”

One of the first people to learn of her death was FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover , due to the agency’s surveillance, according to Monk. Oppenheimer was despondent upon hearing the news. Due to the unusual circumstances around her death and the FBI surveillance, many have speculated that Tatlock was murdered , but most of her loved ones believe the cause of death was suicide.

Tatlock’s relationship with Oppenheimer was used as evidence against him in 1954, when the United States Atomic Energy Commission held security hearings that explored his communist associations and other past actions. Oppenheimer lost his security clearance as a result of the hearing, effectively ending his formal relationship with the U.S. government.

Stream Oppenheimer Now

Oppenheimer is directed and written by Christopher Nolan . Cillian Murphy stars as J. Robert Oppenheimer , with Florence Pugh tackling the role of Jean Tatolock. Other cast members include Emily Blunt , Matt Damon , Robert Downey Jr. , Rami Malek , Josh Hartnett, Casey Affleck, and Kenneth Branagh.

You can rent or purchase the movie on Prime Video , Apple TV+ , and other major streaming platforms.

Colin McEvoy joined the Biography.com staff in 2023, and before that had spent 16 years as a journalist, writer, and communications professional. He is the author of two true crime books: Love Me or Else and Fatal Jealousy . He is also an avid film buff, reader, and lover of great stories.

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May/June 1922: Friedmann Imagines a Changing Universe — to Einstein’s Chagrin

Alexander friedmann used einstein’s general theory of relativity to propose a universe that could expand or contract..

In May 1922, a relatively unknown Russian mathematician and meteorologist sent a casual note to a friend outlining ideas that would rearrange our understanding of the universe.

Along with the letter, Alexander Friedmann typed up a manuscript detailing how Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity showed that the universe could expand or shrink. He sent the manuscript and note to his friend, the Austrian physicist Paul Ehrenfest.

“I'm sending you a brief note regarding the question about the possible shape of the universe more general than the cylindrical world of Einstein, and the spherical world of de Sitter,” the correspondence reads, referring also to another solution proposed by Dutch astronomer Willem de Sitter. “Aside from these two cases there appears also a world, the space of which possesses a curvature radius varying with time.”

In other words, Friedmann thought the universe might not be static after all — that it could expand or contract at a calculable rate. Several years before Georges Lemaître theorized an expanding universe and Edwin Hubble measured it, Friedmann had unearthed the foundations of what would become the Big Bang theory.

Einstein first derived the general theory of relativity in 1915, publishing equations that describe how mass curves spacetime as gravity. Then, in a 1917 paper titled “Cosmological Considerations in the General Theory of Relativity,” he applied his field equations to the whole universe.

But a mathematical problem had emerged. The accepted paradigm of the time was that the universe was static, and Einstein thought that any alternative was impossible — but his field equations, he and later de Sitter realized, would allow for a universe that could change.

“From the standpoint of astronomy … I have erected but a lofty castle in the air,” Einstein, then in Berlin, wrote in a letter to de Sitter, who was also coming up with cosmological solutions to the general relativity equations. “For me, though, it was a burning question whether the relativity concept can be followed through to the finish, or whether it leads to contradictions.”

He devised a parameter for the equations called the cosmological constant that he thought would keep the universe closed and static. The constant was merely a “hypothetical term,” he admitted. Still, “I am satisfied now that I was able to think the idea through to completion without encountering contradictions,” he wrote in a letter to de Sitter.

Along came Friedmann to provide contradictions aplenty. Born in St. Petersburg in 1888, Alexander Friedmann studied math and physics at university and applied these studies to aeronautics and meteorology research. He flew in missions for the Russian Imperial Army in World War I and spent down time modeling the trajectory of dropped bombs, which he verified during flights over the Austrian front.

By 1922, Friedmann was back in St. Petersburg, then called Petrograd. There, while he worked as a professor, he began to tackle Einstein’s 1917 paper in earnest. In what would later be dubbed the Friedmann equations, he showed that by varying a few assumptions, including the value of the cosmological constant, Einstein’s equations could describe a universe that expands over time, contracts over time, or contracts and then expands again.

Friedmann wrote up his conclusions in a paper , “On the Curvature of Space,” which was accepted for publication by the respected German journal Zeitschrift für Physik on June 29, 1922.

Einstein swiftly wrote to the journal with a refutation. “The results concerning the non-stationary world … appear to me suspicious,” he wrote. “In reality it turns out that the solution given in it does not satisfy the field equations.”

Friedmann, undaunted, responded to Einstein with his precise calculations. And, Friedmann asked, if the esteemed physicist verified independently that they were indeed correct, could he please inform the editors of Zeitschrift für Physik and amend his earlier criticisms?

Einstein did eventually retract his statement after meeting with a colleague of Friedmann’s in May 1923. “My criticism … was based on an error in my calculations. I consider that Mr. Friedmann’s results are correct and shed new light,” he wrote in a letter to Zeitschrift für Physik . (Einstein would later call the cosmological constant his “greatest blunder.”)

New light was an understatement. In 1923, Friedman published a book, The World as Space and Time , elaborating on his findings and considering how his equations might actually map to the physical world. He published a second paper in 1924, outlining more possibilities for an infinite static or non-static universe.

He was aware that no observational evidence existed. “All these scenarios must be considered as curiosities which cannot be presently supported by solid astronomical experimental data,” he wrote.

Early data arrived that very same decade. In 1929, Edwin Hubble observed that the redshift of a galaxy was directly proportional to the galaxy’s distance from Earth. This implied that the further the galaxy, the faster it was moving away — proof of Friedmann’s theoretical work on a changing universe. In the 1960s, the discovery of the cosmic microwave background provided yet more evidence of the universe’s expansion, and by the 1970s, the term “Big Bang” had caught on to describe what was by then the reigning cosmological theory.

Tragically, Friedmann did not live to see any of this evidence. He contracted typhoid and died in August 1925, four years before Hubble’s observational evidence of the universe’s expansion. He was just 37 years old. For many years, both during his life and after his death, his contributions were largely overlooked.

Nevertheless, his work represents an important piece of physics history. A 1993 biography of Friedmann describes his contributions succinctly: “As Copernicus made the Earth go round the Sun, so Friedmann made the Universe expand.”

Tess Joosse

Tess Joosse is a science writer based in the Midwest.

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