ALBERT EINSTEIN

ALBERT EINSTEIN

Albert Einstein was a german-born physicist who proposed the theory of relativity which forms the basis of modern physics.

INITIAL DAYS

Einstein was born on March 14, 1879 in Ulm, Germany. His father Hermann Einstein ran an electrochemical factory whereas his mother Pauline Einstein ran the household. Einstein also has a sister named Maza Einstein who was two years younger than him.

EDUCATION

At the age of 7, Einstein entered a catholic elementary school.Although his academic life wasn't that happening. He felt extremely miserable to occupy himself with the things he was not interested. He had firm belief in education but did not considered memorising facts and dates merely for the sake of examination.

He was not liked by his teachers because he raised valid questions when no one else did. Consequently, he was asked to leave school as his behavior was felt to be a disturbance in the environment of studying.

After this, Einstein tried to enter the Federal Institute of Technology (FIT) in Zurich , Switzerland. But, his education in subjects other than mathematics wasn't up to the par. As a result, he failed in the entrance examination.

He obtained his diploma from the Cantonal School in Aarau, Switzerland and then he was automatically admitted into FIT in the year 1896. It was at this point he realised that he was better suited for physics than mathematics. Einstein graduated from FIT in1900.

In 1902, he was hired as an Inspector in the Patent office in Bern, Switzerland.

PERSONAL LIFE

FIRST MARRIAGE

Einstein married Mileva Maric`, a physicist and mathematician on 6 January, 1903. She also happened to be Einstein's classmate.

They had three children; two sons, namely-Hans and Eduard and a daughter named Liesrel. 

Liesrel was their first child born in 1902 but her fate remains unknown till date. Rumours aroused that she died of an scarlett fever or the couple gave up the child for adoption.

Hans Albert Einstein was Einstein's first son born in 1904. Their third child Eduard Einstein was born in 1910.

Einstein separated from Mileva in 1914 and the couple got divorced in 1919.

SECOND MARRIAGE

Einstein got married again to his cousin Elsa Einstein in 1919. Albert and Elsa did not had a child of their own. However, Einstein had two stepdaughters namely- Iise and Margot from Elsa's previous marriage . Later on, Elsa died of a painful illness in December 20, 1936 at New Jersey, United States.

EINSTEIN's THEORY OF RELATIVITY

Einstein's biggest contribution to the modern physics was his Theory of Relativity put forward in1905.

Einstein's theory of relativity revolves around two theories: Special relativity and General relativity.

The theory of special relativity states that the speed of light in vacuum was independent of the motion of the observers. It proposed new concepts of space and time.

His theory of general relativity, (which was put forward in 1915) determined that massive objects cause a distortion in space and time which is felt as gravity.

MOVED TO U.S.

In December 1932,Einstein made the decision to move to US, where he took a position at the Institute for Advanced Study in New Jersey.

By the end of 1936 (when his wife Elsa died) he was busy with his efforts to find a unified field theory which would incorporate all the laws of physics into a singular frame.

In the late 1930's , Einstein's theories including his equation of mass- energy equivalence helped him to form the basis in the formation of the atom bomb.

In 1952, Einstein rejected the proposal to become the President of Israel put forth by David Ben-Gurion, Israel's premier.

LAST YEARS OF LIFE

Throughout the last years of life, Einstein continued his quest for finding a unified field theory which remained unfinished till his death on 18 April, 1955 at New Jersey, US.

DEATH

Einstein died due to an Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm(AAA) at Penn Medicine Princeton Medical Center in New Jeresy, US.

Even though he could be cured, he refused further medication and 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."

AFTERLIFE OF HIS BRAIN

Einstein's cremation took place on the latter part of the day of his death. But, soon his son Hans Albert discovered that his father's body in the coffin did not lay intact. 

The pathologist Thomas Harvey who conducted the autopsy of Einstein's body , removed his brain and kept it in the hope of unlocking the secret to his genius.

After approval from Einstein's son , Harvey had the brain cut into multiple pieces and sent to various scientists all over the world for research.

The first conclusion from the study of his brain claimed that it had an abnormal proportion of two types of cells namely, Neurons and Glia.

Hippocampus which is a subcortical brain structure that plays the main role in memory and learning. The neurons on the left side of Einstein's hippocampus were found to be larger than those on the right. This implies that the neurons in the left hemisphere of Einstein's brain may have had stronger nerve cell connections.

A study published in a journal in Sep 2013 formulated that Einstein's Corpus Callosum (which is a large bundle of fibers that connects the two hemispheres of the brain )was somewhat more thicker than normal. This is supposed to provide more extensive connections between the hemispheres.

The most famous of them all came in 1999 from The Canadian University which claimed that Einstein's brain possessed unusual folds in his parietal lobe i.e. a part of the brain associated with mathematics and spatial ability.

Einstein's ability to think so widely about  the fundamental properties of the universe is the reasonfor him to be considered as the father of modern physics.