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Albert Einstein
(1879-1955)
Unique scientist
Dr Duncan L Copp
December 2001
Updated August 2005
E=mc2, the one equation almost everyone knows by heart. It describes the simple yet profound link between energy and matter and has totally changed the way we view the Universe. It has overturned the understanding of the physical world which stood unchallenged for hundreds of years. It explains why stars shine, and indirectly, is responsible for the mushroom cloud that appeared over Hiroshima. In many ways this equation has changed many lives and it still challenges our common sense view of the world. The man who derived this equation was born in Ulm, Germany. He was called Albert Einstein.
Einstein the scientist
There is a commonly held myth that Einstein was an underachiever at school, but it really isn't true. While he may have had difficulties with languages, Einstein excelled in physics, mathematics and music. In 1900, he graduated from the Federal Institute of Technology (EHT) in Zurich with a teaching diploma in mathematics, but he failed to get a university appointment.
For nine years after graduation from EHT, Einstein remained without a university position. He first earnt a living as a mathematics teacher and then worked at the Swiss patent office in Bern. Einstein held many patents himself and was a keen inventor. While at the patent office he took it upon himself to write his own scientific papers in his spare time, mostly at weekends and in the evenings after work.
1905 was Einstein's Annus Mirablis – his miracle year. During this year he wrote three fundamental papers, any of which would have guaranteed him immortality in the world of physics.
His first was on a new understanding of the structure of light. Einstein argued that light is composed of small particles of energy, called photons, as well as oscillating waves.
The second paper built upon the theory of kinetics. Einstein explained how atoms were responsible for the buffeting of particles of material in suspension, like cigarette smoke suspended in air. This paper presented the first direct evidence for the existence of atoms vindicating an idea that had been around for over 2000 years.
His third paper of 1905 was 'On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies'. Here Einstein derived the theory of 'special relativity'. In a supplementary paper four months later, he formulated the famous equation, E=mc2, where mass and energy are equivalent, showing that a very small amount of mass converts to a huge amount of energy. This is the driving force behind atomic bombs, and all the stars in the Universe.
Einstein's next great achievement came after 10 years of dedicated and at times frustrating work. In March 1916, he published his paper on 'general relativity' describing a profound way of interpreting the action of gravity. His mathematical equations showed how mass can warp space. In a similar way to how a heavy bowling ball placed on a trampoline would warp the fabric. Einstein predicted that the warping of space would effect the way objects moved. He predicted that such a huge body as the Sun would warp space around it and bend the light of distant stars that passed close to it.
In 1919, his theory was proved during a total solar eclipse, when indeed starlight was observed to bend 'around' the Sun. Einstein was delighted: 'I have just completed the most splendid work of my life', he wrote to his son, Hans. In the same year, at the tender age of 30, Einstein became the first superstar scientist, grabbing worldwide media attention. In many ways, science would never be the same again.
Einstein at home
While at the Institute of Technology in Zurich, Einstein fell in love with Mileva Maric, his first wife. Lieserl, his first child, was born out of wedlock in 1902 in Novi Sad, Hungary. In 1903, Einstein and Mileva married in Bern, but Lieserl remained in Hungary with Mileva's parents. The daughter was eventually adopted before falling ill. Little else is known about Lieserl; all records of her have disappeared. Albert and Mileva had two more children together: Hans (1904-1973), who became a hydraulic engineer and Eduard (1910-1965), who developed schizophrenia. Einstein's marriage to Mileva was not a particularly happy one; Einstein himself admitted it was much out of 'a sense of duty'. In 1914, they separated.
In 1917, Einstein fell ill. Stomach problems, ulcers and liver complaints dogged him for four long years. During this period he saw little of Mileva. It was his cousin Elsa that nursed him back to health. Having made a partial recovery by 1919, Einstein and Mileva were divorced and in the same year he married Elsa in Berlin. While Elsa and Albert had no children of their own, Elsa's daughters legally took the name Einstein.
Einstein the humanitarian
Although his name is associated principally with science, Einstein's humanitarian efforts were also significant. The man did not formulate his theories in ivory towers; he lived through a tumultuous time witnessing two world wars and conflicts that had a direct significance on his life.
Einstein was a Jew and a strong believer in the social ethics of Judaism. A year before the Nazis came to power, in 1932, Einstein left Germany to work at Princeton in the US – he would never return. He abhorred the treatment of the Jews and was a signatory on a letter to President Roosevelt that urged the development of atomic weapons in the US, in the belief that the bomb would act as a deterrent to Germany, who was developing her own. Aside from this, Einstein was a passionate pacifist.
Einstein often made 'excursions into politics', as he put it, and his left-wing political views were well known. In 1952, the opportunity arose for him to enter politics formally when the Israeli government offered him the country's presidency. He politely declined.
It is fitting that a few days before his death, Einstein put his name to a manifesto prepared by Bertrand Russell that called for all nations to ban the use and development of nuclear weapons. The Russell-Einstein Manifesto, as it became known, formed the cornerstone of all major initiatives to abolish nuclear weapons, like the Pugwash Conferences and CND.
On 18 April 1955, Einstein's heart failed. He died in Princeton and his ashes were scattered in an undisclosed location.
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