BIOGRAPHY OF Albert Einstein.

                                                     

                                 BIOGRAPHY OF Albert Einstein.

 He is known as one of the most intelligentmen to walk this earth, yet his private life was nothing short of chaotic. He was the world’s most celebrated scientist,yet he shunned the limelight. He ushered in the atomic age, yet he was alifelong pacifist. In this week’s Biographics, we delve intothe contradictory life of Albert Einstein.

                                                Early Life

                                                                   
 Hermann and Pauline Einstein, a Jewish couplemarried three years earlier, welcomed their first child, Albert, on March 14, 1879. Six weeks after his birth they moved fromUlm, Germany, to Munich, as a result of failed business endeavours. In Munich, Hermann joined forces with hisbrother in an electrical engineering business which was propped up by Pauline's parents. Three years later they had their second child,Maria. With the influence of his musically talentedmother, Albert started musical studies at the age of five, learning the piano and thenthe violin the following year. Einstein developed an appreciation for musicat an early age, and later wrote: "If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. 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."
                                                                
He was enrolled in a Catholic school in 1885,switching over to the more advanced "Luitpold-Gymnasium" in 1888, now known as the Albert EinsteinGymnasium. He proved to be an adequate, but by no meansan outstanding student. By 1894, the electrical manufacturing businessthat Albert’s father and uncle ran was facing seriously difficulty. For the last decade they had been making DCcurrent componentry. But now C current was gaining ascendancy anddemand for their services had dried up. With no incoming coming in, Hermann made thedecision to move the family to Italy, where job prospects looked brighter. However, 15-year-old Albert stayed behindto complete his schooling in Munich. Albert did not enjoy his schooling and oftenbutted heads with the strict rote teachers. He chafed at the strict discipline and thelack of freedom for creative thought. The subjects that were taught to him heldno interest – except for mathematics. He had a natural affinity with the subjectand quickly mastered the work that was presented to him. A Physics Prodigy From around the age of twelve, Albert beganteaching himself advanced mathematical concepts, starting with algebra. His father engaged a tutor, Max Talmud, butsoon Albert was out-thinking even him. Talmud presented the boy with a geometry textbook. He later commented . . . "[Einstein] had worked through the whole book. He thereupon devoted himself to higher mathematics... Soon the flight of his mathematical geniuswas so high I could not follow." Einstein started teaching himself calculusat 12, and as a 14 year old he says he had "mastered integral and differential calculus".
                                                         
Soon after his family's move to Italy, Einsteinforged a doctor’s note which convinced the principal of the Luitpold Gymnasium to allowhim to quit the school and join his family in Italy. He still had a year to go before completinghis required schooling. In an attempt to skive out of attending hislast year of high school, Albert took an entrance exam at "The Swiss Federal Polytechnic University"in Zurich. He came out with excellent results in Mathsand Physics but failed in every other subject. His scores in physics and maths were so outstandingthat they caught the eye of the school’s principal. He encouraged the family to send Albert tothe renowned "Kantonsschule" school in Aarau, Switzerland, to increase his knowledge. It was arranged for the seventeen-year-oldto stay with the family of the professor of the school, Jost Winteler. During his year with the Winteler’s, Albertfell in love with Winteler’s daughter, seventeen-year-old Marie Winteler.

They had a brief romance, which came to anend when Marie moved to Olsberg to start her teaching career. University and Marriage Having found his academic passion, Albertapplied himself to his studies in Switzerland. He passed the Swiss Matura with outstandinggrades in physics and mathematics and then reapplied to the " Swiss Polytechnic University"in Zurich. This time he passed and was admitted intoa four-year physics and mathematics teaching diploma program. It was around this time that Albert also renouncedhis German citizenship in order to avoid the compulsory military training that he wouldface in a few months when he turned eighteen. Albert soon became friends with the only girlin his class, Mileva Maric. They both shared a love for science, beingat the top of their class. Mileva spent a semester in Heidelberg, Germany. While she was away, she and Einstein wroteeach other almost every day. Once she returned, their friendship turnedinto a relationship. Einstein's parents opposed the union due tothe difference in religion, culture, and age. As the couple’s relationship flourished,Mileva started to struggle in her studies.
                                                                 
In 1900, Einstein passed the final exam, butMileva failed. Afterward, she worked at raising her knowledgeso she could retake the test. It was around this time that she found outthat she was pregnant. Meliva decided to move in with her parents. In early 1902, she gave birth to their daughter,Lieserl. No one is sure what happened to Mileva andAlbert's daughter, with many thinking she was either adopted or died of Scarlet Fever. Albert struggled to find a teaching positionfollowing his graduation. This was partly due to the fact that he hadalienated many of his tutors over the four years of his studies. He gave off the impression that they had littleof value to impart to him and preferred to do his own independent study. He finally secured a job but one that wastotally unrelated to his course of study, and thought by his contemporaries to be belowhim. Having gained his Swiss citizenship, he becameeligible to work for the Swiss government. He secured a position as a clerk in the SwissPatent Office for Intellectual Property.

The Patent Office Einstein’s job was to assess patent applicationsfor all manner of devices. Quite a number of the patent applicationsinvolved the transmission of electric signals and the electro-mechanical synchronizationof time. These concepts gelled with Einstein’s areaof personal fascination and served as the impetus for his investigations exploring thenature of light and the relationship between space and time. While his days were filled with the analysisof patent applications, Einstein spent his evenings working on his scientific theories. He started a discussion group with a few friends,Conrad Habicht and Maurice Solovine, that he called ‘the Olympia Academy’. Albert and Mileva reunited in 1903 and gotmarried that same year. The couple went on to have two sons, Hans,born in 1904, and Eduard, who arrived in 1910. The Miracle Year 1905 was a turning point for Albert Einstein. Over the last couple of years, he had beenbuilding a reputation as an up and coming intellect among the scientific community.
                                                            
 In April of 1905, he completed his thesis,in association with a Professor of Experimental Physics by the name of Alfred Kleiner. Einstein received a Ph.D from Zurich Universityshortly thereafter. During the second half of 1905, Albert producedfour scientific papers. The subjects of his dissertations were PhotoelectricEffect, Brownian Motion, Special Relativity, and The Equivalence of Mass & Energy. Each of them was received enthusiasticallyby the intelligentsia. However, it was the fourth paper that gavethe world its most famous equation . . . E = MC2 E stands for Energy, M for mass and C2 forthe speed of light times itself. What it meant in practical terms was thatmass could be changed into energy and vice versa. As a result, tiny packets of mass could beconverted into huge bursts of energy. The 26-year-old Einstein had, with the publicationof his paper on the equivalency of mass and energy ushered in the atomic age. Among those who heaped praise upon Einsteinfor his work was one of the most pre-eminent quantum theorists of the day, Max Planck fromGermany. His backing gave Albert instant credibility. He began receiving speaking requests fromall over Switzerland, along with offers of teaching positions. His days at the patent office were over. So, this is a biography channel, we’re notgoing to go into the depths of Einstein’s work… But if you would like to really get an understandingof just what he worked on, you should absolutely check out today’s sponsor Brilliant. Brilliant are a science learning platformthat allow you to learn through "active learning". Which, summed up is basically the oppositeof that feeling of reading a complex paragraph about some principle, and then having no ideawhat is going on.
                                                      
Then you read it again, and again, same thingright? Just an inability to absorb it - totally normal,totally not the best way to learn. Brilliant take even something like specialrelativity and makes it easy to understand. They give you something super short to read,it's easy, and then you immediately apply it to a problem. Rinse and repeat and suddenly you are understandingall sort of stuff you didn't think you would be! I've been using Brilliant, and you shouldgo try it out just to see how facinating it is that such complex subjects can be so easilygrapsed! Whether you want to learn about paradoxesand spacetime, and their place in special relativity… Or something completely different like advancedstats, Brilliant is where you should do it! Support biographics by going to brilliant.org/biographics. Multiple Positions Einstein worked the lecture circuit and thentook up a position as a lecturer at the University of Bern in 1908.

During that year he returned to his alma mater,the University of Zurich. The university authorities were so taken withthe budding genius that they created a position just for him, as an associate professor intheir theoretical physics department. He transferred there from Bern Universityin 1909. Two years later, Einstein gained a full professorshipwhen he took up a position at the Charles-Ferdinand University in Prague. To take up the position, he had to take outAustrian citizenship. But he would only remain in the position fortwelve months. Over that time, he published a total of elevenscientific papers. Then, in 1912, he returned to the Universityof Zurich where he took up a full professorship in the theoretical physics department. He was able to work alongside his long-timefriend and collaborator Marcel Grossman.
                                                                  
 As well as teaching the laws of thermodynamics,he also lectured on analytical mechanics. That same year Einstein began an extra-maritalaffair with his first cousin, Elsa Lowenthal. Einstein was not there much for his family,putting all his time and energy into his work and research. For several years he had been emotionallydistant from Mileva. Recently, letters were found that he wrotein 1910 to his first love, Marie Winteler. In them, he professed his undying love forher and lamented the life that they had missed out on together. Settling in Germany In 1914, Einstein uprooted his family yetagain as he took up a position at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics located at theUniversity of Berlin. He would remain in Germany for the next 19years and was soon was appointed director of the Institute. The position gave him professorship withoutteaching duties, which afforded him time to work on his scientific studies.

 Another major draw for the return to Germanywas that it allowed him to be closer to his mistress, Elsa. Towards the end of 1914, Mileva moved backto Zurich with her sons, after finding out about her husband's affair and coming to therealization that Albert was not a capable family man. Einstein divorced Mileva in April of 1919. Then in June, he married his cousin, Elsa. In 1916, Einstein published his theory ofgeneral relativity. This was a groundbreaking achievement in theworld of physics. It theorized that what we see as the forceof gravity actually results from the curvature of space and time. As a result, the earth is not actually beingpulled toward the sun by gravity but the interaction of space and time which dictates how the earthmoves. Einstein predicted that light from anotherstar would be bent by the Sun’s gravity.
                                                                  
During a solar eclipse in 1919, that predictionwas confirmed. The publicity that surrounded the confirmationof his theory went round the globe and, for the first time, the name Albert Einstein becameknown worldwide. Worldwide Fame In the early 1920’s, Einstein became a celebrityamong the scientific community in America. He was invited to New York to kick off a three-weeklecture tour in April, 1921. He lectured at Columbia and Princeton, amongother places of learning. He also managed to get in a tour of the WhiteHouse. Einstein’s first impression of America wasa positive one. Shortly after his return, he published anessay called, ‘My First Impressions of America’. In it, he wrote . . . What strikes a visitor is the joyous, positiveattitude to life ... The American is friendly, self-confident, optimistic, and without envy.

In 1921, Einstein’s popularity reached anew high when he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics. Because his theories on general and specialrelativity were not yet widely accepted, the award was given for his explanation of thephotoelectric effect. Throughout the 1920’s Albert and Elsa undertooka number of international tours that saw them being received in such far flung places asSingapore, Japan and Palestine.

 In December, 1930, he made a second trip tothe United States. This time he wanted to fly under the radar,feeling that he had received far too much attention on his first visit. But try as he may, he still found himselfbeing overwhelmed with offers to speak and invitations to receive awards. All of them were turned down. However, when he tried to slip into New YorkCity, he couldn’t avoid the celebrity of being awarded the keys to the city by MayorJim Walker. When he visited the New York Riverside Churchhe was surprised to find that the congregants had created a life-sized statue of him. He then moved on to California, where he wasintroduced to a number of movie stars, including Charlie Chaplin.
                                                   
The two men remained lifelong friends. On one occasion, Chaplin and Einstein appearedtogether in public to great applause. Einstein turned to Chaplin and said . . . They are cheering us both. To this, Chaplin replied . . . They are applauding you because none of themunderstands you and applauding me because everybody understands me. Leaving Germany Back in Germany things were beginning to lookominous. With the rise of the Nazi party, the rightsof Jews rapidly diminished. They were no longer permitted to hold positionsof authority, so Einstein was removed from his directorship of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute. Despite being the most famous scientist onthe planet, he couldn’t even teach in the local secondary school.

While he was on an overseas tour, his homewas raided by the Gestapo. In February 1933, Einstein was on anothertour of the United States with Elsa. With Adolf Hitler having been proclaimed Chancellorof Germany just a few weeks earlier, Albert knew that there was no future for him in thecountry of his birth. The couple sailed to Belgium in March. Upon arrival in Antwerp, Einstein went directlyto the German consulate and renounced his German citizenship. The Nazis later sold his boat and convertedhis cottage into a Hitler Youth camp. The Einstein’s rented a house in De Haan,Belgium for a couple of months.
                                                        
 During that time, news of the Nazi book burningsreached them. It was reported that all of Albert’s writingshad been consumed in the flames. A German magazine published a list of enemiesof the state which included Einstein. Alongside his name was the caption ‘notyet hanged’ offering a $5,000 bounty on his head. In July, 1933, Einstein was invited to Londonfor six weeks at the request of an old British naval officer friend. While there, he had an audience with WinstonChurchill. He asked for British assistance to bring asmany Jewish scientists out of Germany as possible. Winston was immediately receptive. Over the coming years, Einstein used his influenceto arrange for placements of more than a thousand scientists in teaching positions at universitiesoutside of Germany. On his return to Belgium, Einstein was offereda resident scholarship at Princeton University. In October, 1933 he and Elsa sailed againfor the United States.

 Einstein took up the position at PrincetonUniversity in the Institute for Advanced Study. In 1935, he was granted permanent residencyin America. His US citizenship was granted in 1940. In 1935 a new tribulation arose for Einstein. His wife Elsa was diagnosed with heart andkidney problems. The following year she died. This was to be his biggest trial yet. Albert was not one to show his emotions. It was said by his friend, Peter Bucky, thatEinstein even shed a tear after Elsa's passing. Throughout their whole friendship, he hadnever seen Albert cry once before this moment. The Atomic Bomb In 1939, a couple of young Hungarian scientistsnamed Leo Szilard and the discovered the science behind an atomic bomb. They tried informing those in positions ofpower, but they had no influence, so they were ignored. Then they decided to reach out to someonewho would have credibility with those in high power. That was when they contacted Einstein. Szilard and Wigner explained their theoryto Einstein, and he was quick to understand the concept. Szilard wrote a letter to President Rooseveltwith Einstein's signature on it.
                                                                        
The letter urged America to create the firstAtomic Bomb before Germany did. It is generally agreed that the addition ofEinstein’s signature was a key influencer in President Roosevelt’s adoption of theatomic bomb development project that was known as the Manhattan Project. The US Government launched the Manhattan Projectin December, 1941. Amazingly, Einstein’s application to bea part of the project was turned down. The reason that the originator of the theoryupon which the bomb was based was denied access to the program was that he was a German andthere were those who thought that he might be a spy for the Nazis.

On August 6 and 9th, 1945, the Atomic Bombwas used on the Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing at least 129,000 people. Five months prior his death, Albert said thathis greatest mistake in life was signing the letter to President Roosevelt concerning theAtomic Bomb . . . "I made one great mistake in my life... whenI signed the letter to President Roosevelt recommending that atom bombs be made; butthere was some justification - the danger that the Germans would make them." Einstein was never comfortable about his fame. He once said... In the past it never occurred to me that everycasual remark of mine would be snatched up and recorded. Otherwise I would have crept further intomy shell. By the time he was settled into his life inAmerica, however, he realized that he was able to use his celebrity status as a vehicletoward promoting important causes. Einstein had been a life-long pacifist andhumanitarian.

Now he used his platform to bring these causesto the fore. During the 1940’s, he gave his support tothe cause of civil right in the United States. He considered racism to be the ‘worst disease’in America. He joined the National Association for theAdvancement of Colored People (NAACP) and became friendly with civil rights activistsW.E.B DuBois. When DuBois was arrested in 1951, Einstein’soffer to be a character witness was enough to get the case dismissed. In 1946, he was awarded an honorary degreefrom Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, which was the first in America to award degreesto Black students.
                                                           
He considered racism America's "worst disease,"seeing it as "handed down from one generation to the next". Einstein also spoke out against anti-Semitism. He developed a friendship with the first primeminister of the new state of Israel, David Ben Gurion. Regarding prejudice against Jews in variousparts of the world, he said . . . There are no German Jews, there are no RussianJews, there are no American Jews... There are in fact only Jews. The End of Einstein He did not believe in a personal God who concernshimself with the actions of humans. He did say, however, that "I am not an atheist",preferring to call himself an agnostic. When asked if he believed in an afterlife,Einstein quipped, "No. And one life is enough for me." And that life would end on the 17th of April1955, at the age of 76. He had been suffering from internal bleedingcaused by the rupture of an abdominal aortic aneurysm, which had previously been reinforcedsurgically. The night before his passing at PrincetonHospital, when offered surgery Einstein said, "I want to go when I want. It is tasteless to prolong life artificially. I have done my share; it is time to go. I will do it elegantly." In a memorial lecture in 1965, nuclear physicistJ. Robert Oppenheimer summarized his impression of Einstein: "He was almost wholly withoutsophistication and wholly without worldliness ... There was always with him a wonderfulpurity at once childlike and profoundly stubborn."