biography of albert einstein and his invention

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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.

HISTORY Vault: Secrets of Einstein's Brain

Originally stolen by the doctor trusted to perform his autopsy, scientists over the decades have examined the brain of Albert Einstein to try and determine what made this seemingly normal man tick.

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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.

Albert Einstein – His Life and Universe

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19 Comments

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• January 11, 2019 3:00 PM

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Biography of Albert Einstein, Theoretical Physicist

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Albert Einstein (March 14, 1879–April 18, 1955), a German-born theoretical physicist who lived during the 20th century, revolutionized scientific thought. Having developed the Theory of Relativity, Einstein opened the door for the development of atomic power and the creation of the atomic bomb.

Einstein is best known for his 1905 general theory of relativity, E=mc 2 , which posits that energy (E) equals mass (m) times the speed of light (c) squared. But his influence went far beyond that theory. Einstein's theories also changed thinking about how the planets revolve around the sun. For his scientific contributions, Einstein also won the 1921 Nobel Prize in physics.

Einstein also was forced to flee Nazi Germany after the rise of Adolf Hitler . It's no exaggeration to say that his theories indirectly helped lead the Allies to victory over the Axis powers in World War II, particularly the defeat of Japan.

Fast Facts: Albert Einstein

• Known For : The General Theory of Relativity, E=mc 2 , which led to the development of the atomic bomb and atomic power.
• Born : March 14, 1879 in Ulm, Kingdom of Württemberg, German Empire
• Parents : Hermann Einstein and Pauline Koch
• Died : April 18, 1955 in Princeton, New Jersey
• Education : Swiss Federal Polytechnic (1896–1900, B.A., 1900; University of Zurich, Ph.D., 1905)
• Published Works : On a Heuristic Point of View Concerning the Production and Transformation of Light, On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies, Does an Object’s Inertia Depend on Its Energy Content?
• Awards and Honors : Barnard Medal (1920), Nobel Prize in Physics (1921), Matteucci Medal (1921), Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1926), Max Planck Medal (1929), Time Person of the Century (1999)
• Spouses : Mileva Marić (m. 1903–1919), Elsa Löwenthal (m. 1919–1936)
• Children : Lieserl, Hans Albert Einstein, Eduard
• Notable Quote : "Try and penetrate with our limited means the secrets of nature and you will find that, behind all the discernible concatenations, there remains something subtle, intangible and inexplicable."

Early Life and Education

Albert Einstein was born on March 14, 1879, in Ulm, Germany to Jewish parents, Hermann and Pauline Einstein. A year later, Hermann Einstein's business failed and he moved his family to Munich to start a new electric business with his brother Jakob. In Munich, Albert's sister Maja was born in 1881. Only two years apart in age, Albert adored his sister and they had a close relationship with each other their whole lives.

Although Einstein is now considered the epitome of genius, in the first two decades of his life, many people thought Einstein was the exact opposite. Right after Einstein was born, relatives were concerned with Einstein's pointy head. Then, when Einstein didn't talk until he was 3 years old, his parents worried something was wrong with him.

Einstein also failed to impress his teachers. From elementary school through college, his teachers and professors thought he was lazy, sloppy, and insubordinate. Many of his teachers thought he would never amount to anything.

When Einstein was 15 years old, his father's new business had failed and the Einstein family moved to Italy. At first, Albert remained behind in Germany to finish high school, but he was soon unhappy with that arrangement and left school to rejoin his family.

Rather than finish high school, Einstein decided to apply directly to the prestigious Polytechnic Institute in Zurich, Switzerland. Although he failed the entrance exam on the first try, he spent a year studying at a local high school and retook the entrance exam in October 1896 and passed.

Once at the Polytechnic, Einstein again did not like school. Believing that his professors only taught old science, Einstein would often skip class, preferring to stay home and read about the newest in scientific theory. When he did attend class, Einstein would often make it obvious that he found the class dull.

Some last-minute studying allowed Einstein to graduate in 1900. However, once out of school, Einstein was unable to find a job because none of his teachers liked him enough to write him a recommendation letter.

For nearly two years, Einstein worked at short-term jobs until a friend was able to help him get a job as a patent clerk at the Swiss Patent Office in Bern. Finally, with a job and some stability, Einstein was able to marry his college sweetheart, Mileva Maric, whom his parents strongly disapproved.

The couple went on to have two sons: Hans Albert (born 1904) and Eduard (born 1910).

Einstein the Patent Clerk

For seven years, Einstein worked six days a week as a patent clerk. He was responsible for examining the blueprints of other people's inventions and then determining whether they were feasible. If they were, Einstein had to ensure that no one else had already been given a patent for the same idea.

Somehow, between his very busy work and family life, Einstein not only found time to earn a doctorate from the University of Zurich (awarded 1905) but found time to think. It was while working at the patent office that Einstein made his most influential discoveries.

Influential Theories

In 1905, while working at the patent office, Einstein wrote five scientific papers, which were all published in the Annalen der Physik ( Annals of Physics , a major physics journal). Three of these were published together in September 1905.

In one paper, Einstein theorized that light must not just travel in waves but existed as particles, which explained the photoelectric effect. Einstein himself described this particular theory as "revolutionary." This was also the theory for which Einstein won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921.

In another paper, Einstein tackled the mystery of why pollen never settled to the bottom of a glass of water but rather, kept moving (Brownian motion). By declaring that the pollen was being moved by water molecules, Einstein solved a longstanding, scientific mystery and proved the existence of molecules.

His third paper described Einstein's "Special Theory of Relativity," in which Einstein revealed that space and time are not absolutes. The only thing that is constant, Einstein stated, is the speed of light; the rest of space and time are all based on the position of the observer.

Not only are space and time not absolutes, Einstein discovered that energy and mass, once thought completely distinct items, were actually interchangeable. In his E=mc 2  equation (E=energy, m=mass, and c=speed of light), Einstein created a simple formula to describe the relationship between energy and mass. This formula reveals that a very small amount of mass can be converted into a huge amount of energy, leading to the later invention of the atomic bomb.

Einstein was only 26 years old when these articles were published and already he had done more for science than any individual since Sir Isaac Newton.

Scientists Take Notice

In 1909, four years after his theories were first published, Einstein was finally offered a teaching position. Einstein enjoyed being a teacher at the University of Zurich. He had found traditional schooling as he grew up extremely limiting and thus he wanted to be a different kind of teacher. Arriving at school unkempt, with hair uncombed and his clothes too baggy, Einstein soon became known as much for his appearance as his teaching style.

As Einstein's fame within the scientific community grew, offers for new, better positions began to pour in. Within only a few years, Einstein worked at the University of Zurich ( Switzerland ), then the German University in Prague (Czech Republic), and then went back to Zurich for the Polytechnic Institute.

The frequent moves, the numerous conferences that Einstein attended, and preoccupation of Einstein with science left Mileva (Einstein's wife) feeling both neglected and lonely. When Einstein was offered a professorship at the University of Berlin in 1913, she didn't want to go. Einstein accepted the position anyway.

Not long after arriving in Berlin, Mileva and Albert separated. Realizing the marriage could not be salvaged, Mileva took the kids back to Zurich. They officially divorced in 1919.

Achieves Worldwide Fame

During  World War I , Einstein stayed in Berlin and worked diligently on new theories. He worked like a man obsessed. With Mileva gone, he often forgot to eat and sleep.

In 1917, the stress eventually took its toll and he collapsed. Diagnosed with gallstones, Einstein was told to rest. During his recuperation, Einstein's cousin Elsa helped nurse him back to health. The two became very close and when Albert's divorce was finalized, Albert and Elsa married.

It was during this time that Einstein revealed his General Theory of Relativity, which considered the effects of acceleration and gravity on time and space. If Einstein's theory was correct, then the gravity of the sun would bend light from stars.

In 1919, Einstein's General Theory of Relativity could be tested during a solar eclipse. In May 1919, two British astronomers (Arthur Eddington and Sir Frances Dyson) were able to put together an expedition that observed the  solar eclipse  and documented the bent light. In November 1919, their findings were announced publicly.

After having suffered monumental bloodshed during World War I, people around the world were craving news that went beyond their country's borders. Einstein became a worldwide celebrity overnight.

It wasn't just his revolutionary theories; it was Einstein's general persona that appealed to the masses. Einstein's disheveled hair, poorly fitting clothes, doe-like eyes, and witty charm endeared him to the average person. He was a genius, but he was an approachable one.

Instantly famous, Einstein was hounded by reporters and photographers wherever he went. He was given honorary degrees and asked to visit countries around the world. Albert and Elsa took trips to the United States, Japan, Palestine (now Israel), South America, and throughout Europe.

Becomes an Enemy of the State

Although Einstein spent the 1920s traveling and making special appearances, these took away from the time he could work on his scientific theories. By the early 1930s, finding time for science wasn't his only problem.

The political climate in Germany was changing drastically. When Adolf Hitler took power in 1933, Einstein was luckily visiting the United States (he never returned to Germany). The Nazis promptly declared Einstein an enemy of the state, ransacked his house, and burned his books.

As death threats began, Einstein finalized his plans to take a position at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, New Jersey. He arrived at Princeton on Oct. 17, 1933.

Einstein suffered a personal loss when Elsa died on Dec. 20, 1936. Three years later, Einstein's sister Maja fled from  Mussolini's Italy and came to live with Einstein in Princeton. She stayed until her death in 1951.

Until the Nazis took power in Germany, Einstein had been a devoted pacifist for his entire life. However, with the harrowing tales coming out of Nazi-occupied Europe, Einstein reevaluated his pacifist ideals. In the case of the Nazis, Einstein realized they needed to be stopped, even if that meant using military might to do so.

The Atomic Bomb

In July 1939, scientists Leo Szilard and Eugene Wigner visited Einstein to discuss the possibility that Germany was working on building an atomic bomb.

The ramifications of Germany building such a destructive weapon prompted Einstein to write a letter to  President Franklin D. Roosevelt  to warn him about this potentially massive weapon. In response, Roosevelt established the  Manhattan Project , a collection of U.S. scientists urged to beat Germany to the construction of a working atomic bomb.

Even though Einstein's letter prompted the Manhattan Project, Einstein himself never worked on constructing the atomic bomb.

Later Years and Death

From 1922 until the end of his life, Einstein worked on finding a "unified field theory." Believing that "God does not play dice," Einstein searched for a single, unified theory that could combine all the fundamental forces of physics between elementary particles. Einstein never found it.

In the years after World War II , Einstein advocated for a world government and for civil rights. In 1952, after the death of Israel's first President Chaim Weizmann , Einstein was offered the presidency of Israel. Realizing that he was not good at politics and too aged to start something new, Einstein declined the offer.

On April 12, 1955, Einstein collapsed at his home. Just six days later, on April 18, 1955, Einstein died when the aneurysm he had been living with for several years finally burst. He was 76 years old.

Resources and Further Reading

• “ The Year Of Albert Einstein. ”  Smithsonian.com , Smithsonian Institution, 1 June 2005.
• “ Albert Einstein. ”  Biography.com , A&E Networks Television, 14 Feb. 2019.
• Kuepper, Hans-Josef. “ The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein. ”  Albert Einstein - Honours, Prizes and Awards.
• Albert Einstein Printables
• The Life and Work of Albert Einstein
• Ancestry of Albert Einstein
• Biography: Albert Einstein
• 10 Things You Don't Know About Albert Einstein
• Einstein's Theory of Relativity
• Leo Szilard, Creator of Manhattan Project, Opposed Use of Atomic Bomb
• Erwin Schrödinger and the Schrödinger's Cat Thought Experiment
• Most Influential Scientists of the 20th Century
• Max Planck Formulates Quantum Theory
• Edward Teller and the Hydrogen Bomb
• 14 Notable European Scientists Throughout History
• James Clerk Maxwell, Master of Electromagnetism
• Introduction to the Major Laws of Physics
• Heinrich Hertz, Scientist Who Proved Existence of Electromagnetic Waves
• Georges-Henri Lemaitre and the Birth of the Universe

Albert Einstein

German-born physicist (1879–1955) / from wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, dear wikiwand ai, let's keep it short by simply answering these key questions:.

Can you list the top facts and stats about Albert Einstein?

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Born in the German Empire , Einstein moved to Switzerland in 1895, forsaking his German citizenship (as a subject of the Kingdom of Württemberg ) [note 1] the following year. In 1897, at the age of seventeen, he enrolled in the mathematics and physics teaching diploma program at the Swiss federal polytechnic school in Zürich , graduating in 1900. In 1901, he acquired Swiss citizenship, which he kept for the rest of his life. In 1903, he secured a permanent position at the Swiss Patent Office in Bern. In 1905, he submitted a successful PhD dissertation to the University of Zurich . In 1914, he moved to Berlin in order to join the Prussian Academy of Sciences and the Humboldt University of Berlin . In 1917, he became director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics ; he also became a German citizen again, this time as a subject of the Kingdom of Prussia . [note 1]

In 1933, while he was visiting the United States, Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany. Horrified by the Nazi " war of extermination " against his fellow Jews, [12] Einstein decided to remain in the US, and was granted American citizenship in 1940. [13] On the eve of World War II , he endorsed a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt alerting him to the potential German nuclear weapons program and recommending that the US begin similar research . Einstein supported the Allies but generally viewed the idea of nuclear weapons with great dismay. [14]

In 1905, sometimes described as his annus mirabilis (miracle year), Einstein published four groundbreaking papers . [15] These outlined a theory of the photoelectric effect, explained Brownian motion , introduced his special theory of relativity —a theory which addressed the inability of classical mechanics to account satisfactorily for the behavior of the electromagnetic field —and demonstrated that if the special theory is correct, mass and energy are equivalent to each other. In 1915, he proposed a general theory of relativity that extended his system of mechanics to incorporate gravitation . A cosmological paper that he published the following year laid out the implications of general relativity for the modeling of the structure and evolution of the universe as a whole. [16] [17] The middle part of his career also saw him making important contributions to statistical mechanics and quantum theory. Especially notable was his work on the quantum physics of radiation , in which light consists of particles, subsequently called photons . For much of the last phase of his academic life, Einstein worked on two endeavors that proved ultimately unsuccessful. Firstly, he advocated against quantum theory's introduction of fundamental randomness into science's picture of the world, objecting that "God does not play dice". [18] Secondly, he attempted to devise a unified field theory by generalizing his geometric theory of gravitation to include electromagnetism too. As a result, he became increasingly isolated from the mainstream of modern physics.

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

Additional resources.

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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• Problematic Thinker His brain was eclpsed by other body parts concerning women. His wife worked to support him through school, forfeiting her own education until later, then he repaid her by having an affair with his much younger cousin and divorcing the wife. Quite an honorable little guy. Reply

Problematic Thinker said: His brain was eclpsed by other body parts concerning women. His wife worked to support him through school, forfeiting her own education until later, then he repaid her by having an affair with his much younger cousin and divorcing the wife. Quite an honorable little guy.

admin said: So much more than funny hair. Albert Einstein: The Life of a Brilliant Physicist : Read more

• William Madden Albert Einstein was never, ever a "professor of physics" at Princeton University. At the time, Princeton, like most Ivy League universities, was highly anti-Semitic and either forbad the hiring of Jewish faculty or enforced a quota on their number. Einstein accepted a position at the newly established Institute For Advanced Study, headquartered in the the town of Princeton but legally and operationally distinct from the university. At the time, this was not known to be a particularly elite appointment, the Institute having no track record whatsoever. Its ability to attract many of the finest minds in their fields quickly changed that perception. (Nevertheless, Richard Feynman, years later, was highly critical of its cloistered atmosphere and, in science at least, its disconnection with the experimental side of the constituent disciplines. ) The Institute is a purely postdoctoral entity, granting no degrees and offering no classes (apart from ad hoc seminars). In the ensuing years, some faculty at the Institute have established collaborative relationships with faculty and postdoctoral fellows at Princeton University, including Einstein with Nathan Rosen (who later moved from the university to the Institute). However, the Institute remains to this day entirely independent of Princeton University. Reply

William Madden said: Albert Einstein was never, ever a "professor of physics" at Princeton University. At the time, Princeton, like most Ivy League universities, was highly anti-Semitic and either forbad the hiring of Jewish faculty or enforced a quota on their number. Einstein accepted a position at the newly established Institute For Advanced Study, headquartered in the the town of Princeton but legally and operationally distinct from the university. At the time, this was not known to be a particularly elite appointment, the Institute having no track record whatsoever. Its ability to attract many of the finest minds in their fields quickly changed that perception. (Nevertheless, Richard Feynman, years later, was highly critical of its cloistered atmosphere and, in science at least, its disconnection with the experimental side of the constituent disciplines. ) The Institute is a purely postdoctoral entity, granting no degrees and offering no classes (apart from ad hoc seminars). In the ensuing years, some faculty at the Institute have established collaborative relationships with faculty and postdoctoral fellows at Princeton University, including Einstein with Nathan Rosen (who later moved from the university to the Institute). However, the Institute remains to this day entirely independent of Princeton University.

• James DeMeo Einstein's theory of relativity was negated by the positive ether-drift experiments that both preceded and followed his earliest works. Michelson-Morely got a 5 to 7.5 kps ether-drift, Dayton Miller got 11.2 kps, and in more recent years Munera got an 18 kps ether wind detection. Each progressively higher value was at higher altitudes, indicating an altitude-velocity dependency, which affirmed a material, entrainable and dynamic ether. Einstein knew these experimental detections would destroy both his general and special relativity theories, and wrote in June 1921, to Robert Millikan: "I believe that I have really found the relationship between gravitation and electricity, assuming that the Miller experiments are based on a fundamental error. Otherwise, the whole relativity theory collapses like a house of cards" In July 1925, Einstein wrote to Edwin Slosson: "My opinion about Miller's experiments is the following ... Should the positive result be confirmed, then the special theory of relativity and with it the general theory of relativity, in its current form, would be invalid. Experimentum summus judex." Miller's ether-drift work was carried out over many years, using a far more sensitive apparatus than M-M, including high atop Mount Wilson. The Mt.Wilson experiments ran over four seasonal epochs, detecting variations in net ether-wind velocity, and overall proving that space is not empty, and light-speed is variable according to direction, and in accordance with the velocity of the emitter and receiver. Experimentum summus judex? In spite of a slap-jack amateurish effort to "prove" Miller's work was due to thermal artifacts -- an unethical effort supported by Einstein in the year before he died -- Miller's findings, and those of other ether-drift experimenters (there are many) who got positive results stand unchallenged. By ignoring such empirical results, the discipline of astrophysics has run itself into a metaphysical cul-de-sac, and today uses brute force firings of professors, dismissals of students and censorship to maintain its assertions of an increasingly complicated and bizarre universe. A prime example is how Halton Arp's findings challenging redshifts as distance indicators was systematically ignored, censored, and he then being forbidden additional telescope time. He was forced to move to Germany to sustain an academic post. There are other examples, many, who didn't have Arp's good reputation prior to making his heresy, and who suffered far worse. Einstein's "space time gravity warps", the "big bang", "black holes", and other bizarre metaphysical fantasies of modern astrophysics will eventually go the way of the Ptolemaic astrologer's epicycles. A good introduction to these facts of science history is found in the book "The Dynamic Ether of Cosmic Space: Correcting a Major Error in Modern Science". https://www.amazon.com/Dynamic-Ether-Cosmic-Space-Correcting/dp/0997405716 Reply

James DeMeo said: Einstein's theory of relativity was negated by the positive ether-drift experiments that both preceded and followed his earliest works. Michelson-Morely got a 5 to 7.5 kps ether-drift, Dayton Miller got 11.2 kps, and in more recent years Munera got an 18 kps ether wind detection. Each progressively higher value was at higher altitudes, indicating an altitude-velocity dependency, which affirmed a material, entrainable and dynamic ether. Einstein knew these experimental detections would destroy both his general and special relativity theories, and wrote in June 1921, to Robert Millikan: "I believe that I have really found the relationship between gravitation and electricity, assuming that the Miller experiments are based on a fundamental error. Otherwise, the whole relativity theory collapses like a house of cards" In July 1925, Einstein wrote to Edwin Slosson: "My opinion about Miller's experiments is the following ... Should the positive result be confirmed, then the special theory of relativity and with it the general theory of relativity, in its current form, would be invalid. Experimentum summus judex." Miller's ether-drift work was carried out over many years, using a far more sensitive apparatus than M-M, including high atop Mount Wilson. The Mt.Wilson experiments ran over four seasonal epochs, detecting variations in net ether-wind velocity, and overall proving that space is not empty, and light-speed is variable according to direction, and in accordance with the velocity of the emitter and receiver. Experimentum summus judex? In spite of a slap-jack amateurish effort to "prove" Miller's work was due to thermal artifacts -- an unethical effort supported by Einstein in the year before he died -- Miller's findings, and those of other ether-drift experimenters (there are many) who got positive results stand unchallenged. By ignoring such empirical results, the discipline of astrophysics has run itself into a metaphysical cul-de-sac, and today uses brute force firings of professors, dismissals of students and censorship to maintain its assertions of an increasingly complicated and bizarre universe. A prime example is how Halton Arp's findings challenging redshifts as distance indicators was systematically ignored, censored, and he then being forbidden additional telescope time. He was forced to move to Germany to sustain an academic post. There are other examples, many, who didn't have Arp's good reputation prior to making his heresy, and who suffered far worse. Einstein's "space time gravity warps", the "big bang", "black holes", and other bizarre metaphysical fantasies of modern astrophysics will eventually go the way of the Ptolemaic astrologer's epicycles. A good introduction to these facts of science history is found in the book "The Dynamic Ether of Cosmic Space: Correcting a Major Error in Modern Science". https://www.amazon.com/Dynamic-Ether-Cosmic-Space-Correcting/dp/0997405716

Mario Sanchez said: Thanks, for these irrelevant informations that are nothing important to understand the matter.

Pifou said: Feminist zealots in despair fellows. They think that there is always someone smarter that is being exploited while the other one steals all the glory. Do not worry about them here they are just dumb as bricks. They have been trying to push this story about Einstein for the last 40 years while themselves cant even make a good sandwich

• Mario Sanchez Who is really this participant adopting these names? (Shwinger_Feinmann) Reply
• View All 16 Comments

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September 1, 2015

How Einstein Changed the World

The fruits of one mind shaped civilization more than seems possible

By Brian Greene

Albert Einstein once said that there are only two things that might be infinite: the universe and human stupidity. And, he confessed, he wasn't sure about the universe.

When we hear that, we chuckle. Or at least we smile. We do not take offense. The reason is that the name “Einstein” conjures an image of a warm-hearted, avuncular sage of an earlier era. We see the good-natured, wild-haired scientific genius whose iconic portraits—riding a bike, sticking out his tongue, staring at us with those penetrating eyes—are emblazoned in our collective cultural memory. Einstein has come to symbolize the purity and power of intellectual exploration.

Einstein shot to fame within the scientific community in 1905, a year christened as his annus mirabilis. While working eight hours days, six days a week at the Swiss patent office in Bern, he wrote four papers in his spare time that changed the course of physics. In March of that year he argued that light, long described as a wave, is actually composed of particles, called photons, an observation that launched quantum mechanics. Two months later, in May, Einstein's calculations provided testable predictions of the atomic hypothesis, later confirmed experimentally, cinching the case that matter is made of atoms. In June he completed the special theory of relativity, revealing that space and time behave in astonishing ways no one had ever anticipated—in short, that distances, speeds and durations are all relative depending on the observer. And to cap it off, in September 1905 Einstein derived a consequence of special relativity, an equation that would become the world's most famous: E = mc 2 .

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Science usually progresses incrementally. Few and far between are contributions that sound the scientific alert that a radical upheaval is at hand. But here one man in one year rang the bell four times, an astonishing outpouring of creative insight. Almost immediately, the scientific establishment could sense that reverberations of Einstein's work were shifting the bedrock understanding of reality. For the wider public, however, Einstein had not yet become Einstein.

That would change on November 6, 1919.

In special relativity, Einstein established that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. This set the stage for a confrontation with Newton's theory of gravity, in which gravity exerts its influence across space instantaneously. Driven by this looming contradiction, Einstein brazenly sought to rewrite the centuries-old rules of Newtonian gravity, a daunting task that even his ardent supporters considered quixotic. Max Planck, the dean of German science, intoned, “As an older friend, I must advise you against it.... You will not succeed, and even if you succeed, no one will believe you.” Never one to yield to authority, Einstein pressed on. And on. For nearly a decade.

Finally, in 1915, Einstein announced his general theory of relativity, which offered a profound recasting of gravity in terms of a startling new idea: warps and curves in space and time. Instead of Earth grabbing hold of a teacup that slips from your hand and pulling it to an untimely demise on the floor, general relativity says that the planet dents the surrounding environment, causing the cup to slide along a spacetime chute that directs it to the floor. Gravity, Einstein declared, is imprinted in the geometry of the universe.

During the 100 years since Einstein proposed the theory, physicists and historians have pieced together a coherent, if complex, story of its genesis [see “ How Einstein Reinvented Reality ,” by Walter Isaacson]. In some of my own general-level writings, I've had the pleasure of retracing Einstein's climb, from elegant maneuvers to pieds en canard to his final summit. Far from demystifying Einstein's creative leaps, however, perusing his process only adds luster to the astonishing novelty and overwhelming beauty of the proposal.

On November 6, 1919, four years after Einstein completed the general theory of relativity, newspapers the world over trumpeted just released astronomical measurements establishing that the positions of stars in the heavens were slightly different than what Newton's laws would have us expect, just as Einstein had predicted. The results triumphantly confirmed Einstein's theory and rocketed him to icon status overnight. He became the man who had toppled Newton and who, in the process, had ushered our species one giant step closer to nature's eternal truths.

To top it off, Einstein made for great copy. While squinting in the limelight and paying lip service to an ardent desire for solitude, he knew how to entice the world's interest in his mysterious but momentous dominion. He would throw out clever quips (“I am a militant pacifist”) and gleefully play the public part of the bemused genius of geniuses. At the premiere of City Lights , while the cameras on the red carpet flashed, Charlie Chaplin whispered to Einstein something along the lines of, “The people applaud me because everybody understands me, and they applaud you because no one understands you.” It was a role Einstein wore well. And the wider public, weary from World War I, embraced him wholeheartedly.

As Einstein glided through society, his ideas about relativity, at least the version broadly reported, seemed to resonate with other cultural upheavals. James Joyce and T. S. Eliot were splintering the sentence. Pablo Picasso and Marcel Duchamp were cleaving the canvas. Arnold Schoenberg and Igor Stravinsky were shattering the scale. Einstein was unshackling space and time from outmoded models of reality.

Some have gone further, portraying Einstein as the central inspiration for the avant-garde movement of the 20th century, the scientific wellspring that necessitated a cultural rethink. It's romantic to believe that nature's truths set off a tidal wave that swept away the dusty vestiges of an entrenched culture. But I've never seen convincing evidence pinning these upheavals to Einstein's science. A widespread misinterpretation of relativity—that it eliminated objective truth—is responsible for many unjustified invocations of Einstein's theories in the realm of culture. Curiously, Einstein himself had conventional tastes: he preferred Bach and Mozart to modern composers and refused a gift of new Bauhaus furniture in favor of the well-worn traditional decor he already owned.

It is fair to say that many revolutionary ideas were wafting through the early 20th century, and they surely commingled. And just as surely, Einstein was a prime example of how breaking from long-held assumptions could uncover breathtaking new landscapes.

A century later the landscapes Einstein revealed remain remarkably vibrant and fertile. General relativity gave birth in the 1920s to modern cosmology, the study of the origin and evolution of the entire universe. Russian mathematician Aleksandr Friedmann and, independently, Belgian physicist and priest Georges Lemaître used Einstein's equations to show that space should be expanding. Einstein resisted this conclusion and even modified the equations by inserting the infamous “cosmological constant” to ensure a static universe. But subsequent observations by Edwin Hubble showing that distant galaxies are all rushing away convinced Einstein to return to his original equations and accept that space is stretching. An expanding universe today means an ever smaller universe in the past, implying that the cosmos emanated from the swelling of a primordial speck, a “primeval atom” as Lemaître called it. The big bang theory was born.

In the decades since, the big bang theory has been substantially developed (today the most widely held version is inflationary theory) and, through various refinements, has aced a spectrum of observational tests. One such observation, which received the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics, revealed that for the past seven billion years not only has space been expanding, but the rate of expansion has been speeding up. The best explanation? The big bang theory augmented by a version of Einstein's long-ago-discarded cosmological constant. The lesson? If you wait long enough, even some of Einstein's wrong ideas turn out to be right [see “ What Einstein Got Wrong ,” by Lawrence M. Krauss].

An even earlier insight from general relativity originated in an analysis carried out by German astronomer Karl Schwarzschild during his stint at the Russian front in the midst of World War I. Taking a break from calculating artillery trajectories, Schwarzschild derived the first exact solution of Einstein's equations, giving a precise description of the warped spacetime produced by a spherical body like the sun. As a by-product, Schwarzschild's result revealed something peculiar. Compress any object to a sufficiently small size—the sun, say, to three miles across—and the resulting spacetime warp will be so severe that anything approaching too closely, including light itself, will be trapped. In modern language, Schwarzschild had revealed the possibility of black holes.

At the time, black holes seemed far-fetched, a mathematical oddity that many expected to have no relevance to reality. But observation, not expectation, dictates what is right, and astronomical data have now established that black holes are real and plentiful. They are too far away for direct exploration at the moment, but as theoretical laboratories, black holes are indispensable. Beginning with Stephen Hawking's influential calculations in the 1970s, physicists have become increasingly convinced that the extreme nature of black holes makes them an ideal proving ground for attempts to push general relativity forward and, most notably, to meld it with quantum mechanics [see “ The Black Hole Test ,” by Dimitrios Psaltis and Sheperd S. Doeleman]. Indeed, one of today's most hotly debated issues concerns how quantum processes may affect our understanding of the outer edge of a black hole—its event horizon—as well as the nature of a black hole's interior.

Which is all just to say that the centenary of general relativity is a far cry from a backward glance of historical interest. Einstein's general relativity is tightly woven into the tapestry of today's leading-edge research.

How, then, did Einstein do it? How did he contribute so much of such lasting importance? Whereas we can dismiss Einstein as the source of Cubism or atonal music, he is why we imagine that someone can, in the privacy of his or her own mind, think hard and reveal cosmic truths. Einstein was social as a scientist, but his big breakthroughs were solitary aha! moments. Did those insights emerge because his brain had an unusual architecture? Because of a nonconformist perspective? Because of a tenacious and uncompromising ability to focus? Maybe. Yes. Probably. The reality, of course, is that no one knows. We can tell stories of why someone may have had this or that idea, but the bottom line is that thought and insight are shaped by influences too numerous to analyze.

Eschewing hyperbole, the best we can say is that Einstein had the right mind at the right moment to crack a collection of deep problems of physics. And what a moment it was. His numerous but comparatively modest contributions in the decades after the discovery of general relativity suggest that the timeliness of the particular intellectual nexus he brought to bear on physics had passed.

With all that he accomplished, and the continuing legacy he spawned, there's an urge to ask another speculative question: Could there be another Einstein? If one means another über genius who will powerfully push science forward, then the answer is surely yes. In the past half a century since Einstein's death, there have indeed been such scientists. But if one means an über genius to whom the world will look not because of accomplishments in sports or entertainment but as a thrilling example of what the human mind can accomplish, well, that question speaks to us—to what we as a civilization will deem precious.

Brian Greene is a professor of physics and mathematics at Columbia University who researches superstring theory. He is author of numerous books and co-founder and chairman of the board of the World Science Festival.

Albert Einstein

• Occupation: Scientist and Inventor
• Born: March 14,1879 Ulm, in Germany
• Died: 18 April 1955 in Princeton, New Jersey
• Best known for: Theory of Relativity and E=mc2

• Albert experienced speech problems as a child. His parents were worried that he wasn't very smart!
• He failed his first try on his entrance exam for college (this gives us all hope!).
• He was offered the presidency of Israel .
• He auctioned off a hand written version of his Theory of Relativity in 1940 for 6 million dollars in order to help with the war effort.
• Albert had a sister named Maja.
• Listen to a recorded reading of this page:

What did Albert Einstein invent? Discoveries that made him famous and changed the world.

Albert Einstein’s name is synonymous with “genius,” and his wild hair is a trope of its own for mad scientists and professors in popular culture.

Einstein’s discoveries led to modern-day inventions like paper towels, solar power, stock market forecasts and laser pointers, but his theory of general relativity is often regarded as his most significant contribution.

Here’s a look at the life and work of Einstein, who is considered one of the most influential physicists of the 20th century. 

What did Albert Einstein invent?

Einstein published four notable papers during his “Miracle Year” in 1905 while he was working at a Swiss patent office:

In his first paper, Einstein applied German physicist Max Planck’s quantum theory to light to explain the photoelectric effect. He went on to win the Nobel Prize for this work in 1921. 

His second paper used the Brownian motion, or the motion of tiny particles suspended in liquid, to share the first experimental proof of the existence of atoms, according to Britannica.

His third paper, “On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies,” offered Einstein’s special theory of relativity . His fourth paper led to the development of the most well-recognized equation in science:  E  =  mc 2 .

E=mc2 says, basically, mass and energy are the same physical entity . This equation, and his other theories, helped in the development of the atomic bomb , though Einstein was never asked to participate in the American-led atomic weapon effort called the Manhattan Project.

In 1915, he published his general theory of relativity , the first theory of gravity since the publication of "Principia", by Sir Isaac Newton in 1687 . Newton’s work established gravity both as a concept and a universal law, stating that gravity is a constant force that tugs on objects . The tug will be stronger if the object has more mass, and weaker if you increase the distance between two objects. 

Einstein’s theory, which he discovered while the director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics at the University of Berlin, tackled the explanation of gravity. His theory of general relativity says that gravity is a natural consequence of a mass’ existence in space – that mass can bend space and time. Newton didn’t believe objects affected space, the American Museum of Natural History writes, but Einstein did, and had even distinguished a fourth dimension known as space-time in his 1905 special theory of relativity. 

Einstein also predicted the existence of gravitational waves in his theory of relativity. Instead of viewing gravity as a constant, immediate force, Einstein proposed a large change in mass would cause space to squeeze and stretch by a small amount.

Einstein’s last work, which remained unfinished when he died, was on unified field theory, which uses a single theoretical framework to describe fundamental forces and the relationships between elementary particles, according to Britannica. 

Fact-checking 'Oppenheimer': Was Albert Einstein really a friend?

When did Albert Einstein die?

Einstein died at the age of 76 on April 18, 1955, of an abdominal aortic aneurysm . According to AMNH, Einstein denied surgery for the burst blood vessel, saying “I want to go when I want to go. It is tasteless to prolong life artificially. I have done my share; it is time to go. I will do it elegantly.”

What was Albert Einstein’s IQ?

There’s no definitive answer or evidence Einstein had his IQ tested, but his IQ is estimated to be around 160. Theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking’s IQ is estimated to be the same, but the two physicists are far from the highest IQs recorded despite popular acclaim. 

The average IQ score in the U.S. is 98. 

Highest IQ ever recorded: World's smartest people, explained

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What Did Albert Einstein Invent?

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Albert Einstein, a man whose name is practically synonymous with genius, is one of history's greatest thinkers. As a physicist and mathematician, Einstein wasn't an inventor in the vein of Thomas Edison or Alexander Graham Bell, but his theories of relativity led to new ways of looking at time, space, matter , energy and gravity . His work led to important advances including the control of atomic energy, space exploration, and applications of light.

As a young boy born to Jewish parents in Germany, his teachers initially called him slow and lazy. However, by the time he left school at the age of 15, one teacher remarked there was nothing left to teach him [source: Golden].

Einstein studied at the Institute of Technology in Zurich and received his doctorate in 1905 at the age of 26. That same year, he published five groundbreaking scientific papers. The first paper earned him his doctorate, and the concepts presented in the next four papers helped change our understanding of the universe. The topics were:

• Brownian movement , or the zigzag motion of microscopic particles in suspension. Einstein's findings helped to prove the existence of atoms and molecules.
• The quantum theory of light. Einstein proposed that light is composed of separate packets of energy, called -- quanta or photons -- that have some properties of particles and some properties of waves. He also explained the photoelectric effect , which is the emission of electrons from some solids when they're struck by light. Television is a practical application of Einstein's theory of light.
• The special theory of relativity . Einstein explained that time and motion are relative to their observers -- as long as the speed of light remains constant and natural laws are the same throughout the universe.
• The link between mass and energy . The fourth paper expanded on this idea with the famous equation E = mc2, relating mass and energy. This formula demonstrates that a small particle of matter contains an enormous amount of energy. This forms much of the basis for nuclear energy.

What happened after this extremely productive year? Find out on the next page.

Albert Einstein: After the Doctorate

After Einstein presented a series of ground-breaking ideas in 1905, Einstein continued to research and expand these concepts and other ideas in physics and mathematics. In 1916, Einstein presented his general theory of relativity , proposing that gravity is a curved field in the space-time continuum created by the existence of mass.

He received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect and his work in theoretical physics.

Einstein left his homeland in Germany in 1933 upon Adolf Hitler's rise to power, and accepted a position at the Institute of Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J. He became a U.S. citizen in 1940. Peaceful by nature and politics, he spoke out strongly against nationalism, war and violence. He also supported Zionism , the idea of the creation of a homeland for Jews in Palestine.

In 1939, Einstein learned that two German chemists had split the uranium atom; he wrote to U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt that this application of scientific knowledge could lead to Germany's development of an atomic bomb and he urged the United States to begin its own research. His suggestions led to the creation of the Manhattan Project -- and the first two atomic bombs it spawned -- in 1945. Einstein was saddened when he heard of the destruction caused by the two nuclear bombs dropped on Japan, and later campaigned for a ban on nuclear weapons.

Scientists are still finding new uses for Einstein's work today. Einstein developed a refrigerator design that received a U.S. patent in 1930. Instead of cooling the interior of the refrigerator with Freon , as we do today, Einstein's design uses ammonia, butane, water -- and almost no energy. Researchers are taking another look at the design as an eco-friendly alternative to air conditioning and refrigeration.

Albert Einstein Inventions FAQ

How did albert einstein help the world, what is einstein's nationality, where did albert einstein go to school, what does e = mc2 mean, what did albert einstein discover, what was one of albert einstein's greatest achievements, lots more information, related articles.

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• BBC Historic Figures. "Albert Einstein." (Mar. 31, 2019) http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/einstein_albert.shtml.
• Time. "The Other 49 Best Inventions." 2008. (Mar. 31, 2019) http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1852747_1854195_1854170,00.html.
• Encyclopædia Britannica. "Einstein, Albert." Student Encyclopædia. Britannica Online for Kids. (Mar. 31, 2019) https://kids.britannica.com/students/article/Albert-Einstein/274135
• Encyclopædia Britannica. "Einstein, Albert." Encyclopedia Britannica, Mar. 10, 2019. (Mar. 31, 2019) http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/181349/Albert-Einstein.
• Golden, Frederic. "Albert Einstein, Person of the Century." Time. Dec. 31, 1999. (Mar. 31, 2019) http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,993017,00.html.

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Albert Einstein’s Role in the Atomic Bomb Was the “One Great Mistake in My Life”

Einstein and his colleague Leo Szilard played a crucial role in encouraging the United States to create an atomic bomb.

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Although acquainted with physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer , Einstein never worked on the Manhattan Project that led to the development of nuclear weapons, nor was he aware of plans to drop the bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But Einstein and his colleague Leo Szilard played a crucial role in encouraging President Franklin D. Roosevelt to pursue the bomb in the first place.

A Startling Visit from a Friend

It all started with a visit by Szilard, a Hungarian-German physicist who previously studied with Einstein in the 1920s. Their research led to the creation of a refrigerator pump that required no moving parts, resulting in what is most commonly called the Einstein refrigerator, according to Genius in the Shadows , a Szilard biography by William Lanouette.

After their collaboration, Szilard conceived the idea of a nuclear “chain reaction” while working in London in 1933. The next year, he convinced the British government to make his chain reaction patent a military secret, according to Lanouette, successfully forestalling a nuclear arms race with Adolf Hitler , who by then was the Chancellor of Germany.

However, after scientists in Germany experimentally split the uranium atom in 1938, Szilard became deeply concerned about idea of Hitler obtaining an atomic bomb first and began raising alarm bells among his personal connections. In Lanouette’s words, he “worked frantically to start the very arms race he had feared.”

In 1939, Szilard visited his old friend Einstein, stunning the fellow physicist by describing the nuclear chain reaction concept. “I haven’t thought of that at all,” Einstein admitted, according to Lanouette. Einstein immediately agreed to warn his friends in the Belgian Royal Family that Nazi Germany might have eyes on the Belgian Congo, which contained the world’s largest uranium supply.

But after that initial meeting, Szilard became convinced that U.S. officials should be warned about Germany’s intentions as well. Szilard and Einstein met for a second time three weeks later, discussing how to get word to President Roosevelt and starting work on one of the most impactful and historic letters in the 20 th century.

The Einstein-Szilard Letter

Through friends, Szilard met with Alexander Sachs, a Wall Street banker with access to the White House. Sachs said he had already spoken with Roosevelt about uranium but that the government decided not to pursue uranium research because Columbia University physicists had told them the prospects of an atomic bomb were minimal, according to The New World 1939/1946: A History of the United States Atomic Energy Commission .

Sachs felt Roosevelt might be persuaded by someone of Einstein’s reputation, according to the book. Einstein—who was also encouraged by Hungarian physicists, including refugees Eugene Wigner and Edward Teller— sent a letter dated August 2, 1939, urging Roosevelt about the possibility that Nazi Germany could develop an atomic bomb.

“In the course of the last four months it has been made probable… that it may become possible to set up a nuclear chain reaction in a large mass of uranium by which vast amounts of power and large quantities of new radium-like elements would be generated,” the letter read . “Now it appears almost certain that this could be achieved in the immediate future.”

Warning that this phenomenon could also lead to the construction of particularly devastating bombs, Einstein encouraged Roosevelt to consider a similar program in the United States and urged him to make contact with physicists working on chain reactions in the United States, according to the letter.

Preoccupied with events in Europe, Roosevelt didn’t respond for nearly two months, making the physicists fear he wasn’t taking the threat of nuclear warfare seriously, according to the U.S. Department of Energy . On the contrary, however, Roosevelt felt Hitler achieving unilateral possession of such powerful bombs would pose a grave risk to the nation.

The Letter Spurs Action

Roosevelt wrote back to Einstein on October 19, 1939, informing him about the establishment of a committee of civilian and military representatives to study uranium, according to the Energy Department. Although this was only the first of many such steps and decisions along the way, this committee was ultimately the catalyst for the Manhattan Project.

In 1940, Einstein sent Roosevelt two more letters on March 7 and April 25, recommending additional work on nuclear research, according to An Einstein Encyclopedia by Alice Calaprice and others. He wrote again on March 25, 1945, expressing his growing fears about the possible misuse of uranium, but it wasn’t delivered before Roosevelt’s death a little more than two weeks later.

The more famous 1939 letter, however, came to be known as the Einstein-Szilard letter and is widely considered to be the key stimulus for the United States developing the atomic bomb, according to Lanouette.

Einstein never worked on the Manhattan Project and had no prior knowledge of plans to use the atomic bombings at Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. A pacifist who despised war, Einstein came to deeply regret his role in the development of the bomb, later saying : “Had I known that the Germans would not succeed in developing an atomic bomb, I would have done nothing.”

Einstein harbored these regrets for this rest of his life. In 1954, one year before his death, Einstein discussed the matter in a letter to his friend, chemist Linus Pauling. Although he cited the fear of Germany developing a bomb as a partial justification, he nevertheless described his letter to Roosevelt as the “one great mistake in my life.”

Einstein Appears in the 2023 Oppenheimer Movie

Oppenheimer , now available for rent or purchase on Prime Video and Apple TV+ , is directed and written by Christopher Nolan . Cillian Murphy stars as J. Robert Oppenheimer , and Tom Conti portrays Albert Einstein . Other cast members include Emily Blunt , Matt Damon , Robert Downey Jr. , Florence Pugh , Rami Malek , Josh Hartnett, Casey Affleck, and Kenneth Branagh.

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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Albert Einstein Biography: Birth, Early Life, Education, Scientific Career, Inventions, Awards, and Honours, Legacy, and More

Albert einstein biography: he was born on 14 march 1879 in ulm, wurttemberg, germany. he was a physicist who developed the special and general theories of relativity. in 1921, he won the nobel prize for physics. read more about his early life, education, his inventions, scientific career, awards, honours, and more..

Albert Einstein Biography 

Albert einstein: early life, education, marriage, children, teaching career.

He was born on 14 March 1879 in Ulm, Württemberg, Germany, to a secular, middle-class Jews . His father was Hermann Einstein, and his mother was Pauline Koch. His father was a featherbed salesman, and later he ran an electrochemical factory with moderate success. Albert Einstein had one sister, named Maria. His family moved to Munich, where he started his schooling at the Luitpold Gymnasium. Later, his parents moved to Italy, where he continued his education at Arau, Switzerland. He went to the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich in 1896. There, he was trained as a teacher in physics and mathematics. In 1901, Albert gained his diploma and acquired Swiss citizenship. At that time, he didn't get the teaching post, but he took a position as a technical assistant in the Swiss Patent Office. He gained his doctor's degree in 1905.

Albert Einstein would write that in his early years, two wonders deeply affected him. The first was his encounter with the compass. At that time, he was five years old. He was puzzled that invisible forces could deflect the needle. And the second one was when he discovered a book of geometry at the age of 12 and called it his "sacred little geometry book".

In the Swiss Patent Office, when he got spare time, he produced much of his remarkable work. He was appointed Privatdozent in Berne in 1908. He became Professor Extraordinary at Zurich in 1909 and Professor of Theoretical Physics at Prague in 1911. In the following year, he returned to Zurich to fill a similar post. 

He was also appointed Director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Physical Institute in 1914 and Professor at the University of Berlin. In 1914, he became a citizen of Germany and remained in Berlin until 1933. In 1940, he became a United States citizen and retired from his post in 1945. 

Albert Einstein married Mileva Maric in 1903. The couple had a daughter and two sons. In 1919, they divorced. In the same year, Albert married his cousin, Elsa Lowenthal, who died in 1936. 

Albert Einstein: Scientific Career and Inventions

Albert Einstein was a leading figure in the World Government Movement after World War II. He was also offered the Presidency of the State of Israel, but he declined it, and he collaborated with Dr. Chaim Weizmann in developing the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

He was always interested in solving the problems of physics and also had a clear view and determination to solve them. He made his strategy his own and was able to visualise the main stages on the way to his goal. In fact, he saw his critical achievements as merely one more step toward the next level of advancement.

When his scientific work started, Albert Einstein realised the inadequacies of Newtonian mechanics and his special theory of relativity emanated from an attempt to reconcile the laws of mechanics with the laws of the electromagnetic field. 

He worked on classical problems of statistical mechanics and problems in which they were merged with quantum theory. This paved the way for an explanation of the Brownian movement of molecules. He explored the properties of light with a low radiation density, and his observations and survey laid the foundation of the photon theory of light.

He postulated the correct interpretation of the special theory of relativity in the early days of Berlin and also furnished a theory of gravitation. He published his paper on the general theory of relativity in 1916. At this point in time, he also contributed to the problems of the theory of radiation and statistical mechanics.

He embarked on the construction of unified field theories in the 1920s, and he was also working on the probabilistic interpretation of quantum theory. He preserved this work in America. 

By developing a quantum theory of monoatomic gas, he contributed to statistical mechanics. He also did valuable work in connection with atomic transition probabilities and relativistic cosmology.

After taking retirement, he continued to work towards the unification of the basic concepts of physics. He took the opposite approach to geometrisation as the majority of physicists. 

Albert Einstein: Important Works

His important works include:

Special Theory of Relativity (1905),

Relativity (English translations, 1920 and 1950),

General Theory of Relativity (1916),

Investigations on Theory of Brownian Movement (1926), and

The Evolution of Physics (1938).

Non-scientific works are:

About Zionism (1930),

Why War? (1933),

My Philosophy (1934), and

Out of My Later Years (1950)

Albert Einstein: Awards and Honours

Barnard Medal (1920) Nobel Prize in Physics (1921) Matteucci Medal (1921) ForMemRS (1921) Copley Medal (1925) Gold Medal (1926) Max Planck Medal (1929)

Albert Einstein: Legacy

The work of Einstein continues to win Nobel Prizes for successful physicists. 

A Nobel Prize was awarded for the discovery of Bose-Einstein condensates in 1995.

Black holes are now known to number in the thousands.

Also, new generations of space satellites have continued to verify the cosmology of Einstein.

Without Nobel Laureate Albert Einstein’s many contributions to theory of quantum mechanics, enhanced oil recovery in Oil & Gas Industry would be but a dream. On his birthday & International Day of #Mathematics , #ONGCCelebrates India’s pivotal role in its development. @g20org pic.twitter.com/z1tCPSnX1Y — Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) (@ONGC_) March 14, 2023

Warm tributes to Nobel laureate Albert Einstein, 20th century’s most celebrated scientist.After contributing to theoretical development of nuclear physics,he later spoke out against the use of nuclear weapons & started believing in the Gandhian philosophy preaching non-violence. pic.twitter.com/TovBlAavDj — Dr Harsh Vardhan (@drharshvardhan) March 14, 2023

Albert Einstein, born on this day, met fellow Nobel Prize laureate Rabindranath Tagore at his home in Germany on 14 July 1930. The two minds explored the concepts of science, religion and philosophy. Read an excerpt from their conversation: https://t.co/h638caaAYZ #Einstein144 pic.twitter.com/GeCjDSX8A0 — The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) March 14, 2023

On April 17, 1955, Einstein experienced internal bleeding caused by a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm that Rudolph Nissen had previously surgically confirmed in 1948. He brought with him to the hospital a speech that he had prepared for a television show to celebrate the seventh anniversary of the State of Israel, but he did not finish it in time. Einstein refused the operation, saying: "I want to go when I want. It is tasteless to prolong life artificially. I've done my part; it's time to go. I'll do it elegantly."

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