Einstein 39 S Universe - October 17 2018

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INSIDE
RUTH ORKIN/HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES
SANFORD ROTH/GETTY IMAGES

CREATIVE COMMONS
CREATIVE COMMONS
INTRODUCTION
A window into Einstein’s theories and his views on life
6
POLITICS & WAR

Shaken and shaped by world conlict, and calls for peace
10
SCIENCE
Establishing the laws of physics and our physical world
30
LIFE
he mysteries of the universe and human existence, spiked with laughter
48
FAMILY
Dueling afections, raising boys and a love of sailing
60
FAME
People around the world know him, not necessarily his theories
76
MUSIC
Playing and listening to music was a vital reverie
86
EINSTEIN’S COVER: EINSTEIN AT HIS PRINCETON HOME IN 1944.

PHOTO BY POPPERFOTO/GETTY IMAGES
UNIVERSE www.DiscoverMagazine.com ©2013 All rights reserved.

Albert Einstein
works at the Institute
for Advanced Study
at Princeton
University in 1947.
ALFRED EISENSTAEDT/TIME &
LIFE PICTURES/GETTY IMAGES
INTRODUCTION
On heories and Life

ou could say Albert Einstein was our irst focused on the intersection of
pop-star scientist. Early in the 20th century, his the sciences and humanities Caltech trustee Ben
Meyer snapped this
two theories of relativity, which proved our per- — a perfect place for Einstein,
photo of Einstein at
ception of the world was far from reality, kicked of who was more artistic than Meyer’s Santa Barbara
his catapult to fame. When a photograph of the you might think. He reveled in home in February 1933.
1919 solar eclipse proved that light could bend, as Einstein playing his violin each day.
predicted, that fame only grew. Few in the general public Curiosity drove his work and his pursuit of life — curios-
understood his scientiic ideas, but they knew they were ity about how the world works (literally) and how we it into
witnessing brilliance at work. it, at scales ranging from the galactic to the ininitesimal.
“Einstein’s Universe” brings to life Einstein’s thoughts It’s that vast place in between where most of us live, and it’s
— not only on science and his times, but also on creativity, here that he sought to tamp down militaristic nationalism in
children, religion and music. Dozens of quotes from his favor of democracy and peace.
writings and speeches, paired with images, capture his early War shaped Einstein’s life, from his ierce paciism ater
COURTESY OF THE ARCHIVES, CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY. FOLLOWING PAGE: MARY EVANS PICTURE LIBRARY/EVERETT COLLECTION
life in the late 1870s in Germany, through his time in Zurich witnessing the Nazis’ rise to power to his early advice to FDR
and Berlin, to his inal 20 years at Princeton. on developing atomic energy as a potential weapon. In his
Einstein did things his way: Who renounces his last signed letter in April 1955, Einstein added his name to a
country’s citizenship in protest at age 17? Who works six manifesto pushing for nations to abandon nuclear weapons.
days a week at a patent oice while writing four seminal He died just a week later.
papers that change the ield of physics in one year? Who Today, his legacy is evident in everyday life, far outside
is so sure he’ll win the Nobel that he includes the pre- the labs of physicists — from cell phones and satellite com-
sumed prize money in negotiations with his estranged munications to nuclear power plants to medical scanning
wife? Who eschews socks when meeting the president at devices. And Einstein’s superstar status lives on, more than
the White House? 50 years ater his death.
Consider this: At just 26, Einstein published what are Einstein’s life was hardly a straight line; you might say
deemed his most important scientiic works, establishing it curved right along with space-time. And who is best to
that mass, energy, speed and distance are crucial to under- make sense of it all than the man himself, in his own words?
standing the universe’s rules. His theories of 1905 are the
bedrock of modern physics. But in the midst of many more
scientiic publications along the road to his Nobel Prize in
1921, his marriage fell apart, he saw little of his boys, and he Becky Lang, Editor
married his irst cousin. blang@DiscoverMagazine.com
he U.S. hooked Einstein on his irst trip in the early ’20s, NOTE: Alice Calaprice’s The New Quotable Einstein (2005, Princeton Uni-
when he delivered four lectures at Princeton. He eventually versity Press) was an essential source for this special issue. All quotes are used
with permission, and credits, unless noted, are attributed to Calaprice’s third
called the campus town his home when he began teaching edition of Quotable Einstein, published on the 100th anniversary of the special
at the Institute for Advanced Study in 1933. he institute theory of relativity.
EINSTEIN’S UNIVERSE
6
Originally, Einstein’s two-month visit to the U.S. was intended to
be all work and little publicity. That changed once his ship docked
in New York, as 50 reporters and dozens of photographers
swarmed him on Dec. 11, 1930, peppering him with what he called
“exquisitely inane questions.” How about explaining the theory of
relativity? “It would take three days. I have not that much time.”
What about your views on Adolf Hitler? “I am not on friendly terms
with Hitler. I think he will live on the empty stomachs in Germany.
When stomachs are full, he will fall.” Can you explain the fourth
dimension? “You will have to ask the spiritualists about that.”
POLITICS & WAR
‘‘ One must divide

one’s time between
A letter from
Einstein to American
astronomer George
Ellery Hale, written
in October 1913 from
politics and equations. Zurich, in which he

describes the bend-
ing of starlight by the
But our equations are gravitational ield of

the sun.
much more important to

me, because politics is for
the present, while our
equations are
for eternity.‘‘
THE GRANGER COLLECTION
10
POLITICS & WAR
‘‘In Hitler
we have a man with
limited intellectual
abilities, unit for any
useful work, bursting
with envy and bitterness
against all of those whom
circumstance and nature
had favored over him. …
He picked up human
flotsam on the street
and in the taverns and
organized them around
himself. hat’s how he
became a politician.
‘‘
CORBIS/GETTY IMAGES
From an unpublished manuscript, 1935
Adolf Hitler salutes a huge crowd of

Hitler Youth in Nuremberg in the 1930s.
BETTMANN/CORBIS/GETTY IMAGES
POLITICS & WAR
US NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION

‘‘ When people live in a time
of maladjustment, when there
OPPOSITE: A crowd gathers
around Adolf Hitler in Munich
after his election as chancellor
of Germany in 1933. ABOVE:
is tension and disequilibrium, Hitler visits Paris with architect

Albert Speer (left) and sculptor
Arno Breker on June 23, 1940.
they become unbalanced

themselves and then may
follow an unbalanced leader.
From a conversation recorded by Algernon Black, fall 1940
‘‘
15
‘‘
he Germans as
an entire people
are responsible
for these mass
murders and must
be punished as a
people. … Behind
the Nazi Party stand
the German people
who elected Hitler
ater he had, in his
book and in his
speeches, made his
shameful intentions
clear beyond the
possibility of
misunderstanding.
On the heroes of the
Warsaw Ghetto, 1944
‘‘
ABOVE: The electric fence at
Auschwitz concentration camp in
Oswiecim, Poland. RIGHT:
Destroyed buildings in Hamburg,
Germany, in 1945.
OPPOSITE: INGRAM PUBLISHING. THIS PAGE: HULTON-DEUSTCH COLLECTION/CORBIS/GETTY IMAGES
POLITICS & WAR
ATOMIC POWER
EINSTEIN WROTE TO
FDR IN 1939 WHILE
SPENDING THE
‘‘
My participation in the production
of the atomic bomb consisted of one
single act: I signed a letter to President
SUMMER ON EASTERN
LONG ISLAND, N.Y.,
AND FDR PROCEEDED
Roosevelt in which I emphasized the
TO FORM A COM-
MITTEE TO STUDY
necessity of conducting large-scale
ATOMIC ENERGY.
EINSTEIN WROTE experimentation with regard
HIM AGAIN MORE
THAN FIVE YEARS
LATER, URGING MORE
to the feasibility of producing an atom
COMMUNICATION
BETWEEN SCIENTISTS
bomb. … I felt impelled to take the
AND POLICYMAKERS.
FDR LIKELY NEVER step because it seemed probable that
READ THE LETTER
BEFORE HE DIED. the Germans might be working
on the same problem, with every
prospect of success. I had no
alternative to act as I did, although
I have always
been a convinced
paciist.‘‘
To the editor of Japanese magazine Kaizo, Sept. 22, 1952
18
Einstein sent this letter to
President Roosevelt to tell him
of advances in nuclear research
and of the threat posed by
German control of uranium
mines in Czechoslovakia. To
ON S
read Einstein’s letter to FDR,

E C OM M
please see page 90.

CREATIV
POLITICS & WAR
‘‘here lies before us,

if we choose, continued progress in
happiness, knowledge, and wisdom.
Shall we, instead, choose death, because
we cannot forget our quarrels? We
appeal, as human beings, to human
beings: Remember your humanity
and forget the rest.
‘‘
Last signed statement on the development of weapons of mass destruction, drated
and signed by Bertrand Russell and signed by nine other scientists; Einstein signed on
April 11, 1955, one week before he died
The atom bomb explodes over Nagasaki,

Japan, photographed by Charles Levy
from one of the B-29 Superfortress
bombers used in the Aug. 9, 1945, attack.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
21
SEUM, BERN
STORISCHES MU
BERNISCHES HI
Albert Einstein’s
Swiss passport,
1923. ‘‘ I am very happy at the prospect of becoming an
American citizen in another year. My desire to be
a citizen of a free republic has always been strong
and prompted me in my younger days to emigrate
from Germany to Switzerland.
Issued on his 60th birthday, 1939 ‘‘
22
POLITICS & WAR
‘‘ People are living now [ater the

war] just as they were before
… and it is clear that they have
learned nothing from the
horrors they have had to deal
with. he little intrigues with
which they had complicated
their lives before are again taking
up most of their thoughts.
What a strange
species we are.‘‘
Letter to lover and alleged Russian spy Margarita Konenkova, Dec. 30, 1945
23
HULTON-DEUTSCH COLLECTION/CORBIS/GETTY IMAGES
‘‘
he most important
aspect of our [Israel’s]
policy must be our
ever-present, manifest
desire to institute
complete equality
for the Arab citizens
living in our midst. …
he attitude we adopt
toward the Arab
minority will provide
the real test of our moral
standards as a people.
To prominent Jewish political igure
Zvi Lurie, Jan. 4, 1955
‘‘
OPPOSITE: Arab women and children begin

a three-mile hike through a no-man’s-land
to the Arab lines in Tulkarem, West Bank, in
1948. ABOVE: With parents nowhere to be
seen and debris all around, this Palestinian
child became a refugee in his homeland in
1948.
POLITICS & WAR
‘‘
My awareness of the essential nature of
Judaism resists the idea of a Jewish state
with borders, an army, and a measure
Israeli Prime Minister
David Ben-Gurion
meets with Einstein
at his Princeton
of temporal power. … I am afraid of the home in 1951 during

a bond issue drive
inner damage Judaism will sustain — for Israel. Below: A
copy of the Palestine
especially from the development of a Post on May 16,
1948, after Ben-
narrow nationalism within our ranks, Gurion declared
independence.
which we have already had to ight
strongly even without a Jewish state. … A
return to a nation in the political sense of
the word would be equivalent to
turning away from the spiritualization
of our community that
we owe to the
genius of our
prophets.‘‘
OPPOSITE: BETTMANN/CORBIS/GETTY IMAGES. LEFT: HISTORAMA.COM
From a speech before the National Labor Committee
for Palestine, April 17, 1938, in New York
POLITICS & WAR
In view of his radical

SURVEILLANCE
BY THE TIME EINSTEIN

DIED IN 1955, THE FBI
HAD COLLECTED MORE
‘‘ background, this oice
Einstein attends a
session of the
Eighth American
Scientiic Congress
THAN 1,400 PAGES
ON HIM ACROSS 23
would not recommend in Washington,
D.C., in 1940.
YEARS. THERE WERE
REPEATED ATTEMPTS
TO LINK HIM WITH
the employment of
COMMUNIST ACTIVITY.
IN ALL THOSE PAGES,
THOUGH, THE AGENCY
Dr. Einstein, on matters
FAILED TO DETECT HIS
ROMANTIC RELATION-
of a secret nature, without
SHIP WITH MARGARITA
KONENKOVA, A SOVIET
SPY. HE DID NOT KNOW
a very careful investigation,
SHE WAS AN AGENT.
as it seems unlikely that
a man of his background
could, in such a short time,
become a loyal American
citizen.
‘‘
Recommendation in 1940 by the FBI, which didn’t know
about Einstein’s letter to FDR warning him about
the possibility of the Germans’ building of a bomb.
28
SCIENCE
WEIGHTLESS
EINSTEIN HAS
REFERRED TO HIS
THOUGHT EXPERI-
MENT ON GRAVITY AND
‘‘
I was sitting in the patent
oice in Bern when all
Einstein during
a 1921 lecture
in Vienna.
ACCELERATION AS THE
HAPPIEST THOUGHT
OF HIS LIFE. HE
of a sudden a thought
IMAGINED A PERSON
STUCK IN AN ELEVA-
TOR, AND WHAT
occurred to me: If a
WOULD HAPPEN IF
THE ELEVATOR’S
CABLE WERE CUT.
person falls freely, he
won’t feel his own weight.
THE PERSON WOULD
EXPERIENCE LITERAL
WEIGHTLESSNESS,
JUST AS IF SHE WERE
IN DEEP SPACE.
I was startled. his
simple thought made
a deep impression on me.
It impelled me toward a
theory of
gravitation.‘‘
From a lecture in Kyoto, Japan, Dec. 14, 1922 CREATIVE COMMONS
30
ECLIPSE: CREATIVE COMMONS; INSET: SCIENCE AND SOCIETY PICTURE LIBRARY/GETTY IMAGES
ABOVE: Hash marks show the position of stars that

appear deflected from their true position as measured
by astrophysicist Sir Arthur Eddington during the 1919
solar eclipse. The measurements conirmed Einstein’s
theoretical work. RIGHT: The telescopes Eddington
used to make the above photograph in Sobral, Brazil.
32
SCIENCE
‘‘ [Planck] was one of

the inest people I
have ever known …
but he really did not
understand physics,
[because] during the eclipse of
1919 he stayed up all night to see
if it would conirm the bending
of light by the gravitational ield.
If he had really understood the
general theory of relativity, he
would have gone to bed the
way I did.
‘‘
Einstein speaking about renowned physicist Max Planck
33
SCIENCE
‘‘
Quantum mechanics is
very worthy of regard.
UNCERTAINTY
EINSTEIN SPENT
YEARS DWELLING ON
THE UNCERTAINTY OF
QUANTUM MECHAN-
But an inner voice tells ICS, WHICH EXPLAINS

THE INTERACTIONS OF
SUBATOMIC PAR-
me that this is not yet the TICLES. HIS CENTRAL

CONCERN WAS
PHILOSOPHICAL IN
NATURE: WHAT IS
right track. he theory REAL? AND WHAT IS

OBSERVED AS REAL?
yields much, but it hardly

brings us closer to the Old The circular struc-
ture at right is called
an Einstein Ring
One’s secrets. I, in any because its image

has been warped
case, am convinced that by the gravity of the

reddish galaxy in the
foreground, as pre-
He does not
dicted by Einstein.
play dice.‘‘
A letter to physicist and mathematician Max Born, Dec. 4,
1926. A popular version of the last sentence is, “God does not
NASA/ESA/HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE
play dice with the universe.”
34
SCIENCE
Einstein’s famous
equation is part of
this paper submitted
to Science Illustrated
‘‘ It follows from the theory of relativity
that mass and energy are both difer-
ent manifestations of the same thing
in 1946.
— a somewhat unfamiliar conception
for the average man. Furthermore,
2
E = mc ,
in which energy is put equal to mass
multiplied with the square of the
velocity of light, showed that a very
small amount of mass may be
converted into a very large amount
of energy … the mass and energy in
fact were equivalent.
Read aloud to an audience ‘‘
ALBERT EINSTEIN ARCHIVES/THE HEBREW UNIVERSITY OF JERUSALEM
37
SCIENCE
An hour sitting
‘‘with a pretty girl Einstein posed for
this portrait taken by
W. Albert Martin in
Pasadena, Calif.,
in 1933.
on a park bench
passes like a
minute, but a
minute sitting
on a hot stove
THIS PAGE: THINKSTOCK. OPPOSITE: COURTESY OF THE ARCHIVES/CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

seems like an hour.‘‘
he explanation of relativity that Einstein gave to his secretary,
Helen Dukas, to pass on to reporters and others
40
SCIENCE
For me,
‘‘a hypothesis is
a statement whose
truth
is temporarily
assumed,
but whose
meaning
must be beyond
all doubt.‘‘
To fellow scientist Edward Study, Sept. 25, 1918
Einstein works out

HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES
mathematical
calculations at a
blackboard in 1921.
41
‘‘
he uniied ield theory
has been put into
retirement. It is so
diicult to employ
mathematically that
I have not been able to
verify it somehow, in
spite of all my eforts.
his state of afairs will
no doubt last many
more years, mostly
because physicists have
little understanding of
logical-philosophical
arguments.
‘‘
A letter to philosopher and mathematician
Maurice Solovine, Feb. 12, 1951
Einstein wrote these equations

on a blackboard during a visit to
Mount Wilson Observatory in 1931.
42
43
COURTESY OF THE ARCHIVES/CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
SCIENCE
‘‘One reason why

mathematics enjoys special
MATH MASTER
A COMMON BELIEF IS
THAT EINSTEIN FAILED
MATH. IN FACT, HE WAS
A MATH WHIZ. HE SAID
IN 1935 THAT MATH
esteem, above all other

OPENED HIS EYES AT
AGE 12 WHEN HE
REALIZED THAT
NATURE COULD BE
sciences, is that its laws are UNDERSTOOD AS

A MATHEMATICAL
STRUCTURE. BEFORE
AGE 15, HE’D MAS-
absolutely certain and TERED CALCULUS.
indisputable, while those

of all other sciences are to
some extent debatable and
in constant danger of being
overthrown by newly
discovered facts.
‘‘
From “Geometry and Experience,” an address to the Prussian
Academy of Sciences in Berlin, Jan. 27, 1921
Einstein in a formal
portrait taken in 1934
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
by photographer
Doris Ulmann.
SCIENCE
He was almost
‘‘
SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
wholly without
CATWALKER/
sophistication
and wholly
without
worldliness. …
here was always in
him a powerful purity
at once childlike and
profoundly stubborn.
Robert Oppenheimer, on Einstein, 1966
‘‘
Physicist and atomic bomb
developer Robert Oppenheimer
ALFRED EISENSTAEDT/TIME & LIFE PICTURES/GETTY IMAGES
listens in December 1947 as

Einstein makes notes at
Princeton’s Institute of
Advanced Study, where both
men taught.
47
LIFE
J RHOADS/ARIZONA STATE,WIYN, AURA, NOAO, NSF

The Einstein Cross
appears to show four
quasars, or super-
bright galactic nuclei,
surrounding a central
galaxy. In reality, the
‘‘ It is in fact nothing short of a miracle that
modern methods of instruction have not yet
gravitational ield of entirely strangled the holy curiosity of
the galaxy, which lies
about 20 times closer,
splits the light from a
inquiry; for this delicate little plant, aside
single distant quasar
into four apparent
from stimulation, stands mainly in need
images. Einstein’s
theories predicted this of freedom; without this it goes to wrack
gravitational bending
of light. and ruin without fail.
‘‘
48
‘‘he most beautiful
thing we can
experience is the
mysterious.
It is the fundamental emotion that stands HIGHER POWER?
at the cradle of true art and true science. He AS A CHILD, EINSTEIN
ATTENDED A CATHOLIC
who does not know it and can no longer SCHOOL AND WAS
FASCINATED WITH
wonder, no longer feel amazement, is as CHRISTIANITY AND
JUDAISM. HE WASN’T
good as dead, a snufed-out candle. It was the AN OBSERVANT JEW,
BUT FAR FROM AN
experience of mystery … that engendered ATHEIST. HIS AGNOSTI-
CISM HINGED ON THE
religion. A knowledge of the existence of AWE-INSPIRING LAWS

OF THE UNIVERSE,
something we cannot penetrate, our percep- WHICH HE BELIEVED

CAME FROM A
SUPERIOR SPIRIT.
tions of the profoundest reason and the most
radiant beauty, which only in their most
primitive forms are accessible to our minds
— it is this knowledge and this emotion that
constitute true religiosity; in this sense, and
in this alone, I am a deeply religious man.
‘‘
49
LIFE
‘‘
If I were a young man
again and had to decide
UNDER ASSAULT
DURING SEN. JOSEPH

MCCARTHY’S HUNT
OF COMMUNISTS,
how to make my living, I EINSTEIN URGED

INTELLECTUALS TO
REFUSE TO APPEAR
would not try to become a BEFORE THE GOVERN-

MENT’S COMMITTEES.
HE WORRIED THAT
scientist or scholar or THE ANTI-COMMUNIST

HYSTERIA, AND
THREATS TO ACADEM-
teacher. I would rather IC FREEDOM, WOULD

TIP THE NATION
TOWARD FASCISM.
choose to be a plumber or
a peddler, in the hope of
inding that modest degree Einstein addresses
the Eighth American
Scientiic Congress in
of independence still Washington in 1940.
available under present

circumstances.
‘‘
To the editor, The Reporter magazine, Oct. 13, 1954, in
response to the McCarthy-era witch hunt on intellectuals
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS/HARRIS & EWING COLLECTION
51
‘‘
When I was young
I found out that the
big toe always ends up
making a hole in a
sock. So I stopped
wearing socks.
‘‘
As recalled by photographer
Philippe Halsman, 1947
‘‘
To obtain
an assured
favorable
response from
people, it is better
to ofer them
something for
their stomachs
instead of
their brains.
‘‘
To L. Manners, a chocolate
manufacturer, March 19, 1954
‘‘
I have irmly
resolved to
bite the dust,
when my time
comes, with a
minimum of
medical assis-
tance, and up to
then I will sin
to my wicked
SYGMA/CORBIS/GETTY IMAGES. OPPOSITE: VERNER REED/TIME & LIFE PICTURES/GETTY IMAGES

heart’s content.
To Elsa Einstein, Aug. 11, 1913 ‘‘
‘‘
I’m doing just ine,
considering that I have
triumphantly survived
Nazism and two wives.
To friend Jakob Ehrat,
May 12, 1952
‘‘
Einstein signed this print and
inscribed it to Margarita Konen-
kova, a married Russian spy who
was known to have affairs with
several prominent men, including
Einstein. The two became roman-
tically involved after Elsa Einstein’s
death. It’s likely he didn’t know
Konenkova was an agent.
‘‘
he important thing is not
to stop questioning. Curi-
osity has its own reason
for existing. One cannot
help but be in awe when
one contemplates the mys-
teries of eternity, of life, of
the marvelous structure
of reality. It is enough if
one tries to comprehend
only a little of this mystery
every day.
‘‘
To William Miller, an editor at
Life, in a memoir published in
the magazine, May 2, 1955
Einstein sits in his ofice at his

Princeton, N.J., home at 112
Mercer St.
LIFE
‘‘What is the
meaning
of human life,
or for that matter, of the life
of any creature? To know an
answer to this question means
to be religious. You ask: Does it
make any sense, then, to pose
this question? I answer: he
man who regards his own life
and that of his fellow creatures
as meaningless is not merely
unhappy but hardly it for life.
Published in his book Mein Weltbild [My World View], 1934 ‘‘
SANFORD ROTH/GETTY IMAGES
55
LIFE
‘‘ My position concerning
God is that of an agnostic.
NEFTALI/SHUTTERSTOCK
I am convinced that a
vivid consciousness of
the primary importance
of moral principles
for the betterment and
ennoblement of life does
not need the idea of a
law-giver, especially a
law-giver who works on
the basis of reward and
punishment.
‘‘
A letter to M. Berkowitz, Oct. 25, 1950
56
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION
BY JAY SMITH/DISCOVER;
DREAMSTIME
‘‘
Einstein had very few hobbies. One was puzzles,
and he got the most amazing ones from all over the
world. … I brought him the famous Chinese Cross,
one of the most complicated puzzles to put together.
He solved it in three
minutes.‘‘
Friend Alice Kahler, 1985
57
LIFE
‘‘ he contrast between his sot

speech and ringing laughter
Einstein at a
luncheon in 1953
in Princeton, N.J.
was enormous. … Every time he

made a point he liked, or heard
something that appealed to him,
he would burst into a booming
laughter that would echo from
wall to wall. … I had been
prepared to know what he
would look like … but I was
totally unprepared for this
roaring, booming, friendly,
all-enveloping
laughter.‘‘
RUTH ORKIN/HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES
Physicist Bernard Cohen, in an interview with G. J. Whitrow
59
FAMILY
I am also looking forward to working

‘‘ on our new studies. You must continue
with your research — how proud I will be
to have a little Ph.D. for a sweetheart while
I remain a totally ordinary person!
To Mileva Maric, Sept. 13, 1900
‘‘
How was I ever able to live
‘‘ alone, my little everything?
Einstein in 1904
with his irst wife,
Mileva Maric, and
their eldest son,
Hans Albert.
Without you I have no

self-conidence, no passion
for work, and no enjoyment
in life — in short, without
you, my life is a void.
‘‘
ULLSTEIN BILD - AKG
To Mileva, Aug. 14, 1900
60
FAMILY
THE GRANGER COLLECTION

Mileva, with sons Eduard
(left) and Hans Albert,
around 1914.
62
I don’t want to lose the
‘‘ children, and I don’t
BREAKING APART
ALBERT AND MILEVA’S

GIDDY ROMANCE AS
PHYSICS STUDENTS
HAD VANISHED
want them to lose me. …

AFTER MORE THAN
A DECADE OF MAR-
RIAGE. ALBERT STAYED
IN BERLIN WITH HIS
Ater everything that has happened, a friendly COUSIN AND LOVER,

ELSA, WHILE MILEVA
RETURNED TO ZURICH
relationship with you is out of the question. WITH THE BOYS. IN
FREQUENT LETTERS,
We shall have a considerate and businesslike ALBERT QUIZZED THE

CHILDREN ON THEIR
SCHOOLWORK, HABITS
relationship. All personal things must be kept AND MUSIC LESSONS.
to a minimum. … I don’t expect I’ll ask you

for a divorce but only want you to stay in
Switzerland with the children … and send me
news of my precious boys every two weeks …
In return, I assure you of proper comportment
on my part, such as I would exercise toward any
unrelated woman.
‘‘
To Mileva, July 18, 1914, in an unsuccessful overture to continue their marriage ater he
had moved to Berlin
63
FAMILY
Einstein with a
puppet created
in his likeness
during a visit to
‘‘ Today I’m sending of some toys for
you and Tete. Don’t neglect your
the California
Institute of
Technology in
piano, my Adu; you don’t know
the early 1930s.
how much pleasure you can give
to others, as well as to yourself,
when you can play music nicely. …
Another thing, brush your teeth
every day, and if a tooth is not quite
all right, go to the dentist imme-
diately. I also do the same and am
now very happy that I have healthy
teeth. his is very important, as you
‘‘ COURTESY OF THE ARCHIVES/CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

will realize yourself later on.
To Hans Albert, afectionately called “Adu,” whose brother Eduard is “Tete;”
circa April 1915
64
FAMILY
‘‘
On the piano, play mainly
NEFTALI/SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
Einstein as a young
the things that you enjoy, man, in a portrait

taken in the Bern
Patent Ofice in
even if your teacher doesn’t Switzerland in 1904.
assign them to you.
You learn
the most from
things that
you enjoy doing
so much that you don’t even
notice that the time is passing.
Oten I’m so engrossed in my
work that I forget to eat lunch.
To Hans Albert, Nov. 4, 1915 ‘‘
66
CREATIVE COMMONS
FAMILY
‘‘ If you were to recite for

me the most beautiful
poem … my pleasure
would not even approach
the pleasure I felt when
I received the mushrooms
and goose cracklings you
prepared for me. … You
will surely not despise the
domestic side of me that is
‘‘
revealed by this disclosure.
To Elsa, Nov. 7, 1913
Einstein and his

second wife,
Elsa, in New York
on April 2, 1921.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
69
FAMILY
It is a thousand pities for

‘‘ the boy that he must pass
MENTAL HEALTH
MENTAL ILLNESS
AFFECTED GENERA-
TIONS OF MILEVA’S
his life without the hope FAMILY, AND POSSIBLY

HER AS WELL. SON
EDUARD EINSTEIN
WAS DIAGNOSED
of a normal existence. WITH SCHIZOPHRENIA
WHILE IN COLLEGE.
EINSTEIN VISITED HIM
… I have no further hopes BEFORE HE LEFT FOR

AMERICA IN THE EARLY
1930S AND NEVER SAW
from the medical side. HIM AGAIN. EDUARD

DIED IN A ZURICH
INSTITUTION IN 1965.
I think it is
better on the TOP: A 1917 photo-
graph of Eduard (left)
whole to let
and older brother,
Hans Albert, on
display at Hebrew
University in 2006.
Nature run its BOTTOM: Eduard

Einstein (right) in
1955 with Carl
course.‘‘ Seelig, a biographer

who maintained an
active correspon-
dence with Albert
To friend Michele Besso, Nov. 11, 1940, about Eduard Einstein.
70
E
AGE ARCHIV
EK ZURICH, IM DAVID SILVE
ETH-BIBLIOTH RMAN/GETTY
IMAGES
FAMILY
‘‘
God
has put so much
Elsa and Albert
Einstein with Gov.
James “Sunny Jim”
Rolph Jr. at the
California Institute
of Technology in
February 1931.
into him that

is beautiful,
and I ind him
wonderful,
even though
life at his side
is debilitating
and difficult in
COURTESY OF THE ARCHIVES/CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
every respect.
‘‘
Elsa Einstein, in a letter to Hermann Struck
and his wife, 1929
73
FAMILY
‘‘ When one was with

him on the sailboat,
you felt him as an
element. He had
THIS PAGE, FROM TOP: UNIVERSAL HISTORY ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES; THINKSTOCK. OPPOSITE: SERGEY KONENKOV/SYGMA/CORBIS/GETTY IMAGES
something so natural
and strong in him because
he was himself a piece
of nature. …
He sailed like
Odysseus.‘‘
Stepdaughter Margot Einstein, May 4, 1978
Einstein sails at
Saranac Lake in
Adirondack State
Park, New York.
LEFT: Einstein
with a passenger on
his small sailboat
in New York.
FAME
‘‘ When I was young, all I

wanted and expected from
life was to sit quietly in some
TOP: LIBRARY OF CONGRESS; BOTTOM FROM LEFT: CAROL HIGHSMITH/LIBRARY OF CONGRESS; LOCKHEED MARTIN; ALEX R. FORSTER/US NAVY
corner doing my work

without the public paying
attention to me. And now
see what
has become
of me.‘‘
Quoted in Albert Einstein: Creator and Rebel,
by Banesh Hofman
ABOVE: Einstein receives his certiicate of American

citizenship from Judge Phillip Forman in 1940. The
print, from the Library of Congress, shows retouching
marks in the upper right.
BOTTOM, FROM LEFT: The Albert Einstein memorial
on the grounds of the National Academy of Sciences
in Washington, D.C.; a rendering of a Lockheed Martin
GPS III satellite, whose operation hinges on Einstein’s
theories; sailors spell out Einstein’s famous equation on
the flight deck of the USS Enterprise’s 50th anniversary.
‘‘ When a
blind beetle
crawls over
the surface
of a curved
branch, it
doesn’t notice
that the track it
has covered is
indeed curved.
I was lucky
enough to
notice what
the beetle
didn’t notice.
‘‘
An answer to son Eduard’s question
on why he is so famous, 1922
Albert and Elsa Einstein say good-

bye to a crowd in Pasadena, Calif.,
as they leave for a car trip to
New York in 1931.
FAME
IN SPOTLIGHT
ON EINSTEIN’S
SECOND TRIP TO
AMERICA, BEGIN-
‘‘ hey cheer me because
they all understand me,
and they
NING IN LATE 1930,
CROWDS SWARMED
HIM, WHETHER IT
WAS TO HEAR HIS
PACIFIST SPEECHES
cheer you
OR CELEBRATE THE
DOCKING OF HIS SHIP
IN SAN DIEGO. HE AND
ELSA VISITED AMERICA
because
FOR THREE MONTHS,
OSTENSIBLY SO HE
COULD WORK AT
CALTECH.
no one
understands
you.‘‘
Charlie Chaplin, ater the premiere
of City Lights
Einstein and his

wife, Elsa, attend the
premiere of the ilm
City Lights with its star,
Charlie Chaplin (center),
in Los Angeles in 1931.
80
AFP/GETTY IMAGES
FAME
‘‘ Today [due to illness]
ROOK76/SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
I stayed in bed and
received guests like
an old lady of the
eighteenth century.
his was fashionable
in Paris at that time.
But I’m not a woman,
and this isn’t the
eighteenth century!
Quoted by Johanna Fantova in Conversations with Einstein,
June 11, 1954
‘‘
Einstein gazes out the
window from his study
in his Princeton home on
March 15, 1954, the day
after his 75th birthday.
83
FAME
‘‘
One of my colleagues in Princeton asked
me: ‘If Einstein dislikes his fame and would
like to increase his privacy, why does he …
wear his hair long, a funny leather jacket,
no socks, no suspenders, no ties?’
he answer
is simple.
he idea is to restrict his needs and,
by this restriction, increase his freedom.
We are slaves of millions of things. …
Einstein tried to reduce them to the
absolute minimum. Long hair minimized
the need for the barber. Socks can be
done without. One leather jacket solves
the coat problems for many years.
Leopold Infeld, an Einstein collaborator at Princeton ‘‘
ERNST HAAS/GETTY IMAGES
Einstein sits in his Princeton home in 1951. Books

were packed into floor-to-ceiling bookcases
around his study.
85
MUSIC
‘‘ If I were not a physicist, I

would probably be a musician.
OPPOSITE: Johann
Sebastian Bach’s
First Sonata for
Solo Violin: Adagio.
The composer was a
I oten think in music. I live favorite of Einstein’s.

BELOW: Bach, in a
1746 portrait by Elias
my daydreams in music. I see Gottlob Haussmann.
my life in terms of music.

… I get most joy in life out
of my violin.
‘‘
From an interview with G.S. Viereck,
Saturday Evening Post, Oct. 26, 1929
his is what I have to say

‘‘ about Bach’s life and work:
listen, play, love, revere —
and keep your mouth shut.
‘‘
BOTH PAGES: CREATIVE COMMONS
Reply to a questionnaire on Bach, and possibly commentary

on music critics, 1928
86
MUSIC
He oten told
‘‘me that one SOLACE IN MUSIC
EINSTEIN STARTED
PLAYING THE VIOLIN
AT AGE 6 AND PLAYED
EACH DAY. BY THE
TIME HE REACHED HIS
of the most 70S, HE SWITCHED TO

PLAYING THE PIANO
DAILY. HE FELL IN LOVE
WITH MOZART AT 13.
important
things in his
life was music.
Whenever he felt he had
come to the end of the
road or into a diicult
situation in his work,
he would take refuge in
music and that would
usually resolve all
his diiculties.
‘‘
AUSTRIAN ARCHIVES/CORBIS/GETTY IMAGES
Hans Albert Einstein, his irst son,

in an interview with Bernard Mayes
89
Einstein’s letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt EINSTEIN’S
Peconic, Long Island, UNIVERSE
August 2nd, 1939 Becky Lang EDITOR
Elizabeth Weber ART DIRECTOR
Sir: Ernie Mastroianni PHOTO EDITOR
Some recent work by F. Fermi and L. Szilard, which has been communicated to me J.C. Suares CONSULTING CREATIVE DIRECTOR
in manuscript, leads me to expect that the element uranium may be turned into a new
and important source of energy in the immediate future. Certain aspects of the situa- DI SCOVE R M AGA Z I N E
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attention the following facts and recommendations:
Siri Carpenter SENIOR EDITOR
In the course of the last four months it has been made probable — through the Bill Andrews ASSOCIATE EDITOR
work of Joliot in France as well as Fermi and Szilard in America — that it may become Dave Lee COPY EDITOR
possible to set up a nuclear chain reaction in a large mass of uranium, by which vast Elisa R. Neckar EDITORIAL ASSISTANT
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POLITICS & WAR

EINSTEIN’S COVER: EINSTEIN AT HIS PRINCETON HOME IN 1944.

UNIVERSE www.DiscoverMagazine.com ©2013 All rights reserved.

On heories and Life

‘‘ One must divide

politics and equations. Zurich, in which he

But our equations are gravitational ield of

much more important to

From an unpublished manuscript, 1935

Adolf Hitler salutes a huge crowd of

US NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION

is tension and disequilibrium, Hitler visits Paris with architect

they become unbalanced

read Einstein’s letter to FDR,

please see page 90.

‘‘here lies before us,

The atom bomb explodes over Nagasaki,

‘‘ People are living now [ater the

OPPOSITE: Arab women and children begin

of temporal power. … I am afraid of the home in 1951 during

In view of his radical

BY THE TIME EINSTEIN

ABOVE: Hash marks show the position of stars that

‘‘ [Planck] was one of

But an inner voice tells ICS, WHICH EXPLAINS

me that this is not yet the TICLES. HIS CENTRAL

right track. he theory REAL? AND WHAT IS

yields much, but it hardly

One’s secrets. I, in any because its image

case, am convinced that by the gravity of the

play dice with the universe.”

THIS PAGE: THINKSTOCK. OPPOSITE: COURTESY OF THE ARCHIVES/CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

Einstein works out

Einstein wrote these equations

‘‘One reason why

esteem, above all other

sciences, is that its laws are UNDERSTOOD AS

absolutely certain and TERED CALCULUS.

indisputable, while those

listens in December 1947 as

J RHOADS/ARIZONA STATE,WIYN, AURA, NOAO, NSF

religion. A knowledge of the existence of AWE-INSPIRING LAWS

something we cannot penetrate, our percep- WHICH HE BELIEVED

DURING SEN. JOSEPH

how to make my living, I EINSTEIN URGED

would not try to become a BEFORE THE GOVERN-

scientist or scholar or THE ANTI-COMMUNIST

teacher. I would rather IC FREEDOM, WOULD

of independence still Washington in 1940.

available under present

SYGMA/CORBIS/GETTY IMAGES. OPPOSITE: VERNER REED/TIME & LIFE PICTURES/GETTY IMAGES

Einstein sits in his ofice at his

‘‘ he contrast between his sot

was enormous. … Every time he

Physicist Bernard Cohen, in an interview with G. J. Whitrow

I am also looking forward to working

Without you I have no

To Mileva, Aug. 14, 1900

THE GRANGER COLLECTION