Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein (/ˈaɪnstaɪn/;^[4] German: [ˈalbɛɐ̯t ˈaɪnʃtaɪn] ( listen); 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist. He developed the general theory of relativity, one of the two pillars of modern physics (alongside quantum mechanics).^[1]^[5]^:274 Einstein’s work is also known for its influence on the philosophy of science.^[6]^[7] Einstein is best known in popular culture for his mass–energy equivalence formula E = mc² (which has been dubbed “the world’s most famous equation”).^[8] He received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics for his “services to theoretical physics”, in particular his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect, a pivotal step in the evolution of quantum theory.^[9]

Near the beginning of his career, Einstein thought that Newtonian mechanics was no longer enough to reconcile the laws of classical mechanics with the laws of the electromagnetic field. This led to the development of his special theory of relativity. He realized, however, that the principle of relativity could also be extended to gravitational fields, and with his subsequent theory of gravitation in 1916, he published a paper on general relativity. He continued to deal with problems of statistical mechanics and quantum theory, which led to his explanations of particle theory and the motion of molecules. He also investigated the thermal properties of light which laid the foundation of the photon theory of light. In 1917, Einstein applied the general theory of relativity to model the large-scale structure of the universe.^[10]^[11]

He was visiting the United States when Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933 and, being Jewish, did not go back to Germany, where he had been a professor at the Berlin Academy of Sciences. He settled in the U.S., becoming an American citizen in 1940.^[12] On the eve of World War II, he endorsed a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt alerting him to the potential development of “extremely powerful bombs of a new type” and recommending that the U.S. begin similar research. This eventually led to what would become the Manhattan Project. Einstein supported defending the Allied forces, but largely denounced the idea of using the newly discovered nuclear fission as a weapon. Later, with the British philosopher Bertrand Russell, Einstein signed the Russell–Einstein Manifesto, which highlighted the danger of nuclear weapons. Einstein was affiliated with the Institute for Advanced Studyin Princeton, New Jersey, until his death in 1955.

Einstein published more than 300 scientific papers along with over 150 non-scientific works.^[10]^[13] On 5 December 2014, universities and archives announced the release of Einstein’s papers, comprising more than 30,000 unique documents.^[14]^[15]Einstein’s intellectual achievements and originality have made the word “Einstein” synonymous with “genius“.^[16]

Early life and education

Marriages and children

Albert Einstein in 1904 (age 25)

The discovery and publication in 1987 of an early correspondence between Einstein and Marić revealed that they had had a daughter, called “Lieserl” in their letters, born in early 1902 in Novi Sad where Marić was staying with her parents. Marić returned to Switzerland without the child, whose real name and fate are unknown. Einstein probably never saw his daughter. The contents of his letter to Marić in September 1903 suggest that the girl was either adopted or died of scarlet fever in infancy.^[35]^[36]

Einstein with his wife Elsa

Einstein and Marić married in January 1903. In May 1904, their first son, Hans Albert Einstein, was born in Bern, Switzerland. Their second son, Eduard, was born in Zürich in July 1910. In April they moved to Berlin. After a few months his wife returned to Zürich with their sons, after learning that Einstein’s chief romantic attraction was his first and second cousin Elsa.^[37] They divorced on 14 February 1919, having lived apart for five years.^[38] Eduard, whom his father called “Tete” (for petit), had a breakdown at about age 20 and was diagnosed with schizophrenia.^[39] His mother cared for him and he was also committed to asylums for several periods, finally being committed permanently after her death.^[40]

In letters revealed in 2015, Einstein wrote to his early love, Marie Winteler, about his marriage and his still-strong feelings for Marie. In 1910 he wrote to her that “I think of you in heartfelt love every spare minute and am so unhappy as only a man can be” while his wife was pregnant with their second child. Einstein spoke about a “misguided love” and a “missed life” regarding his love for Marie.^[41]

Einstein married Elsa Löwenthal in 1919,^[42]^[43] after having had a personal relationship with her since 1912.^[44] She was a first cousin maternally and a second cousin paternally.^[44] In 1933, they emigrated to the United States. In 1935, Elsa Einstein was diagnosed with heart and kidney problems; she died in December 1936.^[45]

Patent office

Olympia Academy founders: Conrad Habicht, Maurice Solovine and Einstein.

After graduating in 1900, Einstein spent almost two frustrating years searching for a teaching post. He acquired Swiss citizenship in February 1901,^[46] but was not conscripted for medical reasons. With the help of Marcel Grossmann‘s father, Einstein secured a job in Bern at the Federal Office for Intellectual Property, the patent office,^[47]^[48] as an assistant examiner – level III.^[49]^[50] He evaluated patent applications for a variety of devices including a gravel sorter and an electromechanical typewriter.^[50] In 1903, Einstein’s position at the Swiss Patent Office became permanent, although he was passed over for promotion until he “fully mastered machine technology”.^[51]^:370

Much of his work at the patent office related to questions about transmission of electric signals and electrical-mechanical synchronization of time, two technical problems that show up conspicuously in the thought experiments that eventually led Einstein to his radical conclusions about the nature of light and the fundamental connection between space and time.^[51]^:377

With a few friends he had met in Bern, Einstein started a small discussion group in 1902, self-mockingly named “The Olympia Academy“, which met regularly to discuss science and philosophy. Their readings included the works of Henri Poincaré, Ernst Mach, and David Hume, which influenced his scientific and philosophical outlook.^[52]

Academic career

Einstein’s official 1921 portrait after receiving the Nobel Prize in Physics

In 1900, Einstein’s paper “Folgerungen aus den Capillaritätserscheinungen” (“Conclusions from the Capillarity Phenomena”) was published in the prestigious Annalen der Physik.^[53]^[54] On 30 April 1905, Einstein completed his thesis,^[55] with Alfred Kleiner, Professor of Experimental Physics, serving as pro-forma advisor. As a result, Einstein was awarded a PhD by the University of Zürich, with his dissertation entitled, “A New Determination of Molecular Dimensions.”^[55]^[56] That same year, which has been called Einstein’s annus mirabilis (miracle year), he published four groundbreaking papers, on the photoelectric effect, Brownian motion, special relativity, and the equivalence of mass and energy, which were to bring him to the notice of the academic world, at the age of 26.

By 1908, he was recognized as a leading scientist and was appointed lecturer at the University of Bern. The following year, after giving a lecture on electrodynamics and the relativity principle at the University of Zürich, Alfred Kleiner recommended him to the faculty for a newly created professorship in theoretical physics. Einstein was appointed associate professor in 1909.^[57]

Einstein became a full professor at the German Charles-Ferdinand University in Prague in April 1911, accepting Austrian citizenship in the Austro-Hungarian Empire to do so.^[58]^[59] During his Prague stay, Einstein wrote 11 scientific works, five of them on radiation mathematics and on the quantum theory of solids. In July 1912, he returned to his alma mater in Zürich. From 1912 until 1914, he was professor of theoretical physics at the ETH Zurich, where he taught analytical mechanics and thermodynamics. He also studied continuum mechanics, the molecular theory of heat, and the problem of gravitation, on which he worked with mathematician and friend Marcel Grossmann.^[60]

In 1914, he returned to the German Empire after being appointed director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics (1914–1932)^[61] and a professor at the Humboldt University of Berlin, but freed from most teaching obligations. He soon became a member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences, and in 1916 was appointed president of the German Physical Society (1916–1918).^[62]

Based on calculations Einstein made in 1911, about his new theory of general relativity, light from another star should be bent by the Sun’s gravity. In 1919, that prediction was confirmed by Sir Arthur Eddington during the solar eclipse of 29 May 1919. Those observations were published in the international media, making Einstein world famous. On 7 November 1919, the leading British newspaper The Times printed a banner headline that read: “Revolution in Science – New Theory of the Universe – Newtonian Ideas Overthrown”.^[63]

In 1920, he became a Foreign Member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.^[64] In 1922, Einstein was awarded the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics “for his services to Theoretical Physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect”.^[9] While the general theory of relativity was still considered somewhat controversial, the citation also does not treat the cited work as an explanation but merely as a discovery of the law, as the idea of photons was considered outlandish and did not receive universal acceptance until the 1924 derivation of the Planck spectrum by S. N. Bose. Einstein was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 1921.^[1] He also received the Copley Medal from the Royal Society in 1925.^[1]

1921–1922: Travels abroad

Einstein in New York, 1921, his first visit to the United States

Einstein visited New York City for the first time on 2 April 1921, where he received an official welcome by Mayor John Francis Hylan, followed by three weeks of lectures and receptions. He went on to deliver several lectures at Columbia University and Princeton University, and in Washington he accompanied representatives of the National Academy of Science on a visit to the White House. On his return to Europe he was the guest of the British statesman and philosopher Viscount Haldane in London, where he met several renowned scientific, intellectual and political figures, and delivered a lecture at King’s College London.^[65] ^[66]

He also published an essay, “My First Impression of the U.S.A.,” in July 1921, in which he tried briefly to describe some characteristics of Americans, much as had Alexis de Tocqueville, who published his own impressions in Democracy in America (1835).^[67] For some of his observations, Einstein was clearly surprised: “What strikes a visitor is the joyous, positive attitude to life . . . The American is friendly, self-confident, optimistic, and without envy.”^[68]^:20

In 1922, his travels took him to Asia and later to Palestine, as part of a six-month excursion and speaking tour, as he visited Singapore, Ceylon and Japan, where he gave a series of lectures to thousands of Japanese. After his first public lecture, he met the emperor and empress at the Imperial Palace, where thousands came to watch. In a letter to his sons, Einstein described his impression of the Japanese as being modest, intelligent, considerate, and having a true feel for art.^[69]

Because of Einstein’s travels to the Far East, he was unable to personally accept the Nobel Prize for Physics at the Stockholm award ceremony in December 1922. In his place, the banquet speech was held by a German diplomat, who praised Einstein not only as a scientist but also as an international peacemaker and activist.^[70]

On his return voyage, he visited Palestine for 12 days in what would become his only visit to that region. Einstein was greeted as if he were a head of state, rather than a physicist, which included a cannon salute upon arriving at the home of the British high commissioner, Sir Herbert Samuel. During one reception, the building was stormed by people who wanted to see and hear him. In Einstein’s talk to the audience, he expressed happiness that the Jewish people were beginning to be recognized as a force in the world.^[71]

1930–1931: Travel to the U.S.

In December 1930, Einstein visited America for the second time, originally intended as a two-month working visit as a research fellow at the California Institute of Technology. After the national attention he received during his first trip to the U.S., he and his arrangers aimed to protect his privacy. Although swamped with telegrams and invitations to receive awards or speak publicly, he declined them all.^[72]

After arriving in New York City, Einstein was taken to various places and events, including Chinatown, a lunch with the editors of the New York Times, and a performance of Carmen at the Metropolitan Opera, where he was cheered by the audience on his arrival. During the days following, he was given the keys to the city by Mayor Jimmy Walker and met the president of Columbia University, who described Einstein as “the ruling monarch of the mind.”^[73] Harry Emerson Fosdick, pastor at New York’s Riverside Church, gave Einstein a tour of the church and showed him a full-size statue that the church made of Einstein, standing at the entrance.^[73] Also during his stay in New York, he joined a crowd of 15,000 people at Madison Square Garden during a Hanukkah celebration.^[73]

Einstein next traveled to California where he met Caltech president and Nobel laureate, Robert A. Millikan. His friendship with Millikan was “awkward”, as Millikan “had a penchant for patriotic militarism,” where Einstein was a pronounced pacifist.^[74] During an address to Caltech’s students, Einstein noted that science was often inclined to do more harm than good.^[75]

Charlie Chaplin and Einstein at the Hollywood premiere of City Lights, January 1931

This aversion to war also led Einstein to befriend author Upton Sinclair and film star Charlie Chaplin, both noted for their pacifism. Carl Laemmle, head of Universal Studios, gave Einstein a tour of his studio and introduced him to Chaplin. They had an instant rapport, with Chaplin inviting Einstein and his wife, Elsa, to his home for dinner. Chaplin said Einstein’s outward persona, calm and gentle, seemed to conceal a “highly emotional temperament,” from which came his “extraordinary intellectual energy.”^[76]^:320

Chaplin also remembers Elsa telling him about the time Einstein conceived his theory of relativity. During breakfast one morning, he seemed lost in thought and ignored his food. She asked him if something was bothering him. He sat down at his piano and started playing. He continued playing and writing notes for half an hour, then went upstairs to his study, where he remained for two weeks, with Elsa bringing up his food. At the end of the two weeks, he came downstairs with two sheets of paper bearing his theory.^[76]^:320

Chaplin’s film, City Lights, was to premiere a few days later in Hollywood, and Chaplin invited Einstein and Elsa to join him as his special guests. Walter Isaacson, Einstein’s biographer, described this as “one of the most memorable scenes in the new era of celebrity.” Einstein and Chaplin arrived together, in black tie, with Elsa joining them, “beaming.” The audience applauded as they entered the theater.^[75]Chaplin visited Einstein at his home on a later trip to Berlin, and recalled his “modest little flat” and the piano at which he had begun writing his theory. Chaplin speculated that it was “possibly used as kindling wood by the Nazis.”^[76]^:322

1933: Emigration to the U.S.

Cartoon of Einstein, who has shed his “Pacifism” wings, standing next to a pillar labeled “World Peace.” He is rolling up his sleeves and holding a sword labeled “Preparedness” (by Charles R. Macauley, c. 1933).

In February 1933 while on a visit to the United States, Einstein knew he could not return to Germany with the rise to power of the Nazisunder Germany’s new chancellor, Adolf Hitler.^[77]^[78]

While at American universities in early 1933, he undertook his third two-month visiting professorship at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. He and his wife Elsa returned to Belgium by ship in March, and during the trip they learned that their cottage was raided by the Nazis and his personal sailboat confiscated. Upon landing in Antwerp on 28 March, he immediately went to the German consulate and turned in his passport, formally renouncing his German citizenship.^[79] A few years later, the Nazis sold his boat and turned his cottage into a Hitler Youth camp.^[80]

Refugee status

In April 1933, Einstein discovered that the new German government had passed laws barring Jews from holding any official positions, including teaching at universities.^[79] Historian Gerald Holton describes how, with “virtually no audible protest being raised by their colleagues,” thousands of Jewish scientists were suddenly forced to give up their university positions and their names were removed from the rolls of institutions where they were employed.^[68]

A month later, Einstein’s works were among those targeted by the German Student Union in the Nazi book burnings, with Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels proclaiming, “Jewish intellectualism is dead.”^[79] One German magazine included him in a list of enemies of the German regime with the phrase, “not yet hanged”, offering a $5,000 bounty on his head.^[79]^[81] In a subsequent letter to physicist and friend Max Born, who had already emigrated from Germany to England, Einstein wrote, “… I must confess that the degree of their brutality and cowardice came as something of a surprise.”^[79] After moving to the U.S., he described the book burnings as a “spontaneous emotional outburst” by those who “shun popular enlightenment,” and “more than anything else in the world, fear the influence of men of intellectual independence.”^[82]

Einstein surrounded by Oliver Locker-Lampson (seated) and assistants assigned to protect him

Einstein was now without a permanent home, unsure where he would live and work, and equally worried about the fate of countless other scientists still in Germany. He rented a house in De Haan, Belgium, where he lived for a few months. In late July 1933, he went to England for about six weeks at the personal invitation of British naval officer Commander Oliver Locker-Lampson, who had become friends with Einstein in the preceding years. To protect Einstein, Locker-Lampson had two assistants watch over him at his secluded cottage outside London, with the press publishing a photo of them guarding Einstein.^[83]

Locker-Lampson took Einstein to meet Winston Churchill at his home, and later, Austen Chamberlain and former Prime Minister Lloyd George.^[84] Einstein asked them to help bring Jewish scientists out of Germany. British historian Martin Gilbert notes that Churchill responded immediately, and sent his friend, physicist Frederick Lindemann to Germany to seek out Jewish scientists and place them in British universities.^[85] Churchill later observed that as a result of Germany having driven the Jews out, they had lowered their “technical standards” and put the Allies’ technology ahead of theirs.^[85]

Einstein later contacted leaders of other nations, including Turkey‘s Prime Minister, İsmet İnönü, to whom he wrote in September 1933 requesting placement of unemployed German-Jewish scientists. As a result of Einstein’s letter, Jewish invitees to Turkey eventually totaled over “1,000 saved individuals.”^[86]

Locker-Lampson also submitted a bill to parliament to extend British citizenship to Einstein, during which period Einstein made a number of public appearances describing the crisis brewing in Europe. The bill failed to become law, however, and Einstein then accepted an earlier offer from the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study, in the U.S., to become a resident scholar.^[87]

Resident scholar at the Institute for Advanced Study

Portrait taken in 1935 in Princeton

In October 1933 Einstein returned to the U.S. and took up a position at the Institute for Advanced Study (in Princeton, New Jersey),^[87]^[88]noted for having become a refuge for scientists fleeing Nazi Germany.^[89] At the time, most American universities, including Harvard, Princeton and Yale, had minimal or no Jewish faculty or students, as a result of their Jewish quota which lasted until the late 1940s.^[89]

Einstein was still undecided on his future. He had offers from several European universities, including Christ Church, Oxford where he stayed for three short periods between May 1931 and June 1933 and was offered a 5 year Studentship,^[90]^[91] but in 1935 he arrived at the decision to remain permanently in the United States and apply for citizenship.^[87]^[92]

Einstein’s affiliation with the Institute for Advanced Study would last until his death in 1955.^[93] He was one of the four first selected (two of the others being John von Neumann and Kurt Gödel) at the new Institute, where he soon developed a close friendship with Gödel. The two would take long walks together discussing their work. Bruria Kaufman, his assistant, later became a physicist. During this period, Einstein tried to develop a unified field theory and to refute the accepted interpretation of quantum physics, both unsuccessfully.

World War II and the Manhattan Project

U.S. citizenship

Einstein accepting U.S. citizenshipcertificate from judge Phillip Forman

Einstein became an American citizen in 1940. Not long after settling into his career at the Institute for Advanced Study (in Princeton, New Jersey), he expressed his appreciation of the meritocracy in American culture when compared to Europe. He recognized the “right of individuals to say and think what they pleased”, without social barriers, and as a result, individuals were encouraged, he said, to be more creative, a trait he valued from his own early education.^[101]

Personal life

Supporter of civil rights

Einstein was a passionate, committed antiracist and joined National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in Princeton, where he campaigned for the civil rights of African Americans. He considered racism America’s “worst disease,”^[81] seeing it as “handed down from one generation to the next.”^[102] As part of his involvement, he corresponded with civil rights activist W. E. B. Du Boisand was prepared to testify on his behalf during his trial in 1951.^[103]^:565 When Einstein offered to be a character witness for Du Bois, the judge decided to drop the case.^[104]

Einstein in 1947

In 1946 Einstein visited Lincoln University in Pennsylvania where he was awarded an honorary degree. Lincoln was the first university in the United States to grant college degrees to African-Americans, including Langston Hughes and Thurgood Marshall. To its students, Einstein gave a speech about racism in America, adding, “I do not intend to be quiet about it.”^[105] A resident of Princeton recalls that Einstein had once paid the college tuition for a black student,^[104] and black physicist Sylvester James Gates states that Einstein had been one of his early science heroes, later finding out about Einstein’s support for civil rights.^[104]

Assisting Zionist causes

Einstein was a figurehead leader in helping establish the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, which opened in 1925, and was among its first Board of Governors. Earlier, in 1921, he was asked by the biochemist and president of the World Zionist Organization, Chaim Weizmann, to help raise funds for the planned university.^[106] He also submitted various suggestions as to its initial programs.

Among those, he advised first creating an Institute of Agriculture in order to settle the undeveloped land. That should be followed, he suggested, by a Chemical Institute and an Institute of Microbiology, to fight the various ongoing epidemics such as malaria, which he called an “evil” that was undermining a third of the country’s development.^[107]^:161 Establishing an Oriental Studies Institute, to include language courses given in both Hebrew and Arabic, for scientific exploration of the country and its historical monuments, was also important.^[107]^:158

Chaim Weizmann later became Israel’s first president. Upon his death while in office in November 1952 and at the urging of Ezriel Carlebach, Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion offered Einstein the position of President of Israel, a mostly ceremonial post.^[108]^[109] The offer was presented by Israel’s ambassador in Washington, Abba Eban, who explained that the offer “embodies the deepest respect which the Jewish people can repose in any of its sons”.^[110] Einstein declined, and wrote in his response that he was “deeply moved”, and “at once saddened and ashamed” that he could not accept it.^[110]

Love of music

Albert Einstein playing violin

Einstein with writer, musician and Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, 1930

Einstein developed an appreciation of music at 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.”^[111]^[112]

His mother played the piano reasonably well and wanted her son to learn the violin, not only to instill in him a love of music but also to help him assimilate into German culture. According to conductor Leon Botstein, Einstein is said to have begun playing when he was 5, although he did not enjoy it at that age.^[113]

When he turned 13, he discovered the violin sonatas of Mozart, whereupon “Einstein fell in love” with Mozart’s music and studied music more willingly. He taught himself to play without “ever practicing systematically”, he said, deciding that “love is a better teacher than a sense of duty.”^[113] At age 17, he was heard by a school examiner in Aarau as he played Beethoven‘s violin sonatas, the examiner stating afterward that his playing was “remarkable and revealing of ‘great insight’.” What struck the examiner, writes Botstein, was that Einstein “displayed a deep love of the music, a quality that was and remains in short supply. Music possessed an unusual meaning for this student.”^[113]

Music took on a pivotal and permanent role in Einstein’s life from that period on. Although the idea of becoming a professional himself was not on his mind at any time, among those with whom Einstein played chamber music were a few professionals, and he performed for private audiences and friends. Chamber music had also become a regular part of his social life while living in Bern, Zürich, and Berlin, where he played with Max Planck and his son, among others. He is sometimes erroneously credited as the editor of the 1937 edition of the Köchel catalogue of Mozart’s work; that edition was actually prepared by Alfred Einstein,^{[citation needed]} who may have been a distant relation.^[114]^[115]

In 1931, while engaged in research at the California Institute of Technology, he visited the Zoellner family conservatory in Los Angeles, where he played some of Beethoven and Mozart’s works with members of the Zoellner Quartet.^[116]^[117] Near the end of his life, when the young Juilliard Quartet visited him in Princeton, he played his violin with them, and the quartet was “impressed by Einstein’s level of coordination and intonation.”^[113]

Political and religious views

Main articles: Albert Einstein’s political views and Albert Einstein’s religious views

Albert Einstein with his wife Elsa Einstein and Zionist leaders, including future President of Israel Chaim Weizmann, his wife Vera Weizmann, Menahem Ussishkin, and Ben-Zion Mossinson on arrival in New York City in 1921

Einstein’s political view was in favor of socialism and critical of capitalism, which he detailed in his essays such as “Why Socialism?“.^[118]^[119]Einstein offered and was called on to give judgments and opinions on matters often unrelated to theoretical physics or mathematics.^[87] He strongly advocated the idea of a democratic global government that would check the power of nation-states in the framework of a world federation.^[120]

Einstein’s views about religious belief have been collected from interviews and original writings. He called himself an agnostic, while disassociating himself from the label atheist.^[121] He said “I believe in Spinoza’s God, who reveals himself in the lawful harmony of all that exists” (New York Times , April 25, 1929). He said he believed in the “pantheistic” God of Baruch Spinoza, but not in a personal god, a belief he criticized.^[122]^[123] Einstein once wrote: “I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but expressed it clearly”.^[124]

Death

On 17 April 1955, Albert Einstein experienced internal bleeding caused by the rupture of an abdominal aortic aneurysm, which had previously been reinforced surgically by Rudolph Nissen in 1948.^[125] He took the draft of a speech he was preparing for a television appearance commemorating the State of Israel’s seventh anniversary with him to the hospital, but he did not live long enough to complete it.^[126]

Einstein refused surgery, saying: “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.”^[127] He died in Princeton Hospital early the next morning at the age of 76, having continued to work until near the end.

During the autopsy, the pathologist of Princeton Hospital, Thomas Stoltz Harvey, removed Einstein’s brain for preservation without the permission of his family, in the hope that the neuroscience of the future would be able to discover what made Einstein so intelligent.^[128] Einstein’s remains were cremated and his ashes were scattered at an undisclosed location.^[129]^[130]

In his lecture at Einstein’s memorial, nuclear physicist Robert Oppenheimer summarized his impression of him as a person: “He was almost wholly without sophistication and wholly without worldliness … There was always with him a wonderful purity at once childlike and profoundly stubborn.”^[131]

Scientific career

Throughout his life, Einstein published hundreds of books and articles.^[13]^[17] He published more than 300 scientific papers and 150 non-scientific ones.^[10]^[13] On 5 December 2014, universities and archives announced the release of Einstein’s papers, comprising more than 30,000 unique documents.^[14]^[15] Einstein’s intellectual achievements and originality have made the word “Einstein” synonymous with “genius“.^[16] In addition to the work he did by himself he also collaborated with other scientists on additional projects including the Bose–Einstein statistics, the Einstein refrigerator and others.^[132]

Great Personaltities

Respect and follow them

Albert Einstein

Early life and education

Marriages and children

Patent office

Academic career

1921–1922: Travels abroad

1930–1931: Travel to the U.S.

1933: Emigration to the U.S.

Refugee status

Resident scholar at the Institute for Advanced Study

World War II and the Manhattan Project

U.S. citizenship

Personal life

Supporter of civil rights

Assisting Zionist causes

Love of music

Political and religious views

Death

Scientific career

Early life and education

Marriages and children

Patent office

Academic career

1921–1922: Travels abroad

1930–1931: Travel to the U.S.

1933: Emigration to the U.S.

Refugee status

Resident scholar at the Institute for Advanced Study

World War II and the Manhattan Project

U.S. citizenship

Personal life

Supporter of civil rights

Assisting Zionist causes

Love of music

Political and religious views

Death

Scientific career

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