Albert
Einstein, a genius, an icon, a man in desperate need of a comb! Most people
know a lot about the famous physicist without even trying to. To begin with
it’s easy to see that he never owned a comb in his entire adult life, and it is
also common knowledge that never wore socks because he disliked the way holes
developed around his big toe. He was born on March 14th 1879 and ended his life
in America in 1955 where his last words were lost to use because the nurse at
his bed side didn’t understand German. He is a man who has had a periodic
element, (einsteinium), named in his honor and one whose social and political
rhetoric is studied as avidly as Machiavelli and Gandhi. But let’s see if there
aren’t some more fascinating facts about one of the most fascinating people of
the 20th century. Here is a list of top 10 fascinating facts about Albert
Einstein.
10.
Did not Talk Till he was Three - Albert
Einstein is called by many the smartest man to have ever lived, but he had a
great deal of difficulty in his early childhood development. Some have wondered
if he suffered from ‘Asperger’s syndrome’ a high function type of autism. But
such speculation is exactly that, speculation. But we do know that he did not
learn to speak until he was three years old and even at the age of nine he is
said to have spoken hesitantly and with uncertainty. This later information
could have been a result of his dislike of this school system, (he went through
several and never seemed to enjoy any of them), and his tendency towards
introspection and thoughtfulness. If nothing else Albert Einstein is a good
example of why being a late bloomer isn’t such a bad thing.
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9.
A Cottage in Norfolk Saved the World…Maybe - During the 1930’s while Hitler’s National Socialist
Party, (the NSDAP), was gaining power and prominence Albert Einstein went to
stay in a cottage in Norfolk, England. Einstein (a symptom of being of Jewish
ancestry in the 1930’s) constantly had to be uprooted and moved as the
political and geographical topography of the world shifted under the pressure
of the Nazi’s. When Hitler was elected to power as Chancellor in 1933 it became
impossible for him to stay in Nazi Germany and a British M.P, (Member of
Parliament), Commander Oliver Locker-Lampson offered him a place to stay in
Norfolk. While at the M.P’s cottage, located in the English countryside,
Einstein was able to continue work on his scientific theories including
developing the ideas behind the first atomic bomb. In many ways being able to
retreat to the small cottage in Norfolk could be said to have helped end the
war, (depending on your opinion on the atomic bomb), but certainly advanced
scientific theory and progress. He left Norfolk to move to America.
8.
Grand Theft Cerebral - A
lot of people know that Albert Einstein’s brain was removed and given to
science for research several hours after his death in 1955, but not many know
that he might not have given his consent. It has been said in the past by
biographers and friends of the famous physicist that it was Albert’s wish that
his mind should be used for scientific research but more recently evidence has
come to light to suggest he might never have requested anything of the sort and
that his brain was removed without his or his family’s permission. Although
Hans Albert Einstein, his son, did agree to it after the brain had already been
removed but insisted it only be utilized for serious scientific research in
respected journals. After significant study it was discovered that among other
thing’s Einstein’s mind contained more gilal cells then most people. These
cells are responsible for synthesizing information.
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7. He was Swiss- Einstein regained his Germany
citizenship in 1914 during the changing political climate at the end of the
First World War. He did so when he entered the Germany civil service, (the
famous patent office), as well as being a member of the Prussian army and
professor at the academy of sciences. But when he left the civil service in
1933, and Germany, he lost that citizenship. Before this happened he had
already gained his Swiss citizenship in 1901. But unlike many of the bonds he
made during this almost nomadic time in his life he retained his Swiss
citizenship until the day he died, even after he became an American citizen in
1940. In fact between 1933 and 1940 he retained his Swiss citizenship only and
you could argue that since he held it longer, and until he died, he was more
Swiss than anything else.
6. His Work Largely went Unnoticed After
the War - While
Einstein gained a lot of popular attention for his eccentricity and public
image as a member of the scientific community behind the discovery of the
atomic bomb, and while most people knew the sight of his unkempt hair style and
that he did not own a pair of socks, his work in the later part of his life,
went largely unexamined until recently. Einstein had been working on a Unified
field theory, (it involved gravity and electromagnetism being solved by one set
of equations), and would do so until he died, but from 1920 onwards he also
began to concentrate on quantum theory. Most people will have heard of this
area of theoretical physics by now, (if not in class then in any number of
Hollywood movies that have exploited it), but the work was neglected until very
recently and is now at the centre of the discipline being considered alongside
such high sounding things as ‘superstring theory.’
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5.
Married his Cousin- A
number of famous people have married their cousins including Jesse James,
Franklin Roosevelt, H.G Wells and Charles Darwin. But so did Einstein and he
did so with gusto. His first wife, Melvia Maric, (married in January 1903), was
a Serbian woman and has been described as having more of an intellectual
partnership with Einstein. He had two sons by her. He married his second wife,
Elsa Lowenthal, about four months after divorcing Maric who had been living
separately for five years. Elsa had nursed Einstein through an illness and this
might have led to his affection for her. In any case she was his first cousin
on his mother’s side, but also his second cousin on his father’s side making
him her cousin two times over on both sides of the family!
4.
Won the Nobel Prize for…One
of the more fascinating facts about Albert Einstein is that very few people
know what he won a Nobel Prize for in 1922. (Coincidently Nobel was the
inventor of dynamite.) Of course an award like the Nobel Prize is actual given
for a life time of work, and no one specific thing, but for the purpose of
naming a winner a single thing is generally named. In Einstein’s case it was
his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect in 1905. (Let’s not go
there, but the photoelectric effect has to do with electrons that are given out
of a material after the absorption of energy, more to the point x-rays, and
Einstein postulated that this absorption was caused by quanta’s of light, now
called protons) He invested the prize money heavily in the United States and
saw much of his investments wiped out in the Depression of 1929.
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3.
President of Israel - Here’s
a good one. It is largely believed that in 1952 Israel asked Albert Einstein to
become Prime Minister. In fact Einstein was asked by the Prime Minister, Ben
Gurion, to become Israel’s Second President since it’s foundation in 1948,
asking him ‘whether you would accept the Presidency of Israel if it were
offered you by a vote of the Knesset.’ Albert, a Jew but not an Israeli
citizen, declined the offer saying that while he was honored he was also sad
and ashamed to say he could not accept it. There are various reports as to why
he turned it down, but by and large they come down to his disinterest at taking
on such responsibility, or joining the stress of the political world. After all
his entire life had been spent fascinated by physics and the pursuit of
scientific answers, his causes and ideology were a necessity brought on by the
urgency of his time for good men to say wise words.
2. Funded WWII - In 1944 Albert Einstein decided to
write out his 1905 paper, the one that won him the Nobel Prize in Physics, (see
item 4 on this list), and auction it off. The papers earned six million dollars
and the money was sent to help with the war effort of World War Two. A vocal
pacifist and author of the book, ‘Why war?’ ironically Einstein actually helped
fund World War Two.
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1.
Money - Naturally we
have been interested in what one of the smartest men who ever lived has to say
on nearly everything, not least because he seems to have had so much to say on
social and moral issues. A pacifist and social thinker Einstein has undoubtedly
been able to teach us a lot outside the world of science, so what did he think
was the greatest hold up to human development and social advancement? That’s
right, money! In 1934 he wrote that he was convinced wealth would never be an
aid to the betterment of humanity, ‘even in the hands of the most devoted
worker in this cause.’ He felt that money only caused greed and envy which
brought on selfishness and an abuse of power. At the end of the day it is only
one man’s opinion and he never said it would be absolutely detrimental or
disastrous to have a currency, only that it was the single greatest thing
holding us back.
