April 12, 2005. Copyright 2005, Graphic News. All rights reserved

Profile of Albert Einstein -- giant of science
By Elisabeth Ribbans

LONDON, April 12, Graphic News:  Albert Einstein once said that Òthe eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility... The fact that it is comprehensible is a miracle.Ó But it was EinsteinÕs extraordinary ability to transform humankindÕs comprehension of the world -- to unravel and explain the deep complexities of nature -- that caused his name, even in his own lifetime, to become a byword for genius.

Widely regarded as the greatest scientist of the 20th century, Einstein -- pacifist, pipe-smoker, humanitarian, sailor, violinist, diarist and poet -- did not always appear destined for academic celebrity. Born in Ulm, Wurttemberg (now part of Germany), on March 14, 1879, the son of a businessman in a non-observant Jewish family, he was considered an inquisitive but slow learner at school. His weakness in arts and social sciences, and perhaps the disruption to his education caused by his family being uprooted to Italy and later Switzerland after his fatherÕs company folded, meant that despite excellent grades in mathematics, he needed two attempts to gain the entrance qualification for the renowned Federal Polytechnic Academy in Zurich, where he was eventually accepted to study physics and maths in 1895.

On graduating in 1900, Einstein took Swiss citizenship, and after a brief spell as a maths teacher, was hired as an examiner at the Swiss patent office in Bern, where he would remain for seven years while studying part-time for his PhD. It was during this time, however, that he rose from anonymous bureaucrat to eminent scientist, following the publication in 1905 -- when Einstein was just 26 years old -- of four articles in the journal Annalen der Physik. Commonly referred to as the Annus Mirabilis Papers, many believe they are the foundation of modern physics. In the first, on Brownian motion, he proved the long-suspected existence of atoms. With the second, he explained why electrons are emitted from a metal surface when exposed to light. This explanation of the so-called Òphotoelectric effectÓ represented a huge contribution to quantum theory and later won him the Nobel Prize. In his third paper, on special relativity, Einstein stood received wisdom about the way the universe works on its head, replacing the laws of Newton and Galileo with his theory of how time and space are related. And in the fourth he extended this theory with a formula for explaining the relationship between energy and matter (that each can be changed into the other) -- e = mc2 -- an equation that provides a cornerstone of scientific understanding and paved the way for the energy source of the atomic bomb and nuclear power.

By 1909 EinsteinÕs standing in the scientific community allowed him to leave the patent office and take up a series of academic posts at universities in Zurich, Prague and Berlin, where as professor at the Prussian Academy of Sciences in 1914 he resumed his German citizenship.

The following year Einstein presented a series of lectures at the academy in which he described the theory that would make him world famous -- the theory of general relativity which shows how matter and energy mould the shape of space and the flow of time, so that what we feel as gravitational force is simply the sensation of following the shortest path possible though curved, four-dimensional space-time. Four years later this theory that space was distorted by gravity was tested under the condition of a solar eclipse and proved true.

While EinsteinÕs professional star burned brightly, trouble for Einstein the man was looming. National Socialism was on the rise in Germany and though Einstein followed no particular religion, attempts were made by anti-Semitic scientists to discredit his work. With typical humour he told an audience at the Sorbonne, in Paris, in 1930: ÒIf my theory of relativity is proven correct, Germany will claim me as a German and France will declare that I am a citizen of the world. Should my theory prove untrue, France will say that IÕm a German and Germany will declare that I am a Jew.Ó

Four years later his property was confiscated by the Nazi government and he renounced his German citizenship and fled to the United States, where he had previously accepted a post at the Institute for Advanced Study, in Princeton, New Jersey. He held this post until his death, and became an American citizen in 1940.

Einstein was married twice, in 1903 to his university sweetheart Mileva Maric -- by whom he had three children -- and in 1919 to his cousin Elsa. He died alone in Princeton on April 18, 1955, and was cremated the same day. His ashes were scattered, in accordance with his wishes, at an undisclosed location.
/ENDS