In the vast starry sky of human civilization, the light of Albert Einstein is like a brilliant supergiant star, dazzling and almost known to everyone. His brain was even secretly preserved after his death in an attempt to explore the source of his extraordinary wisdom. However, is such a seemingly god-like existence really flawless? Is his life really as extraordinary as his scientific achievements? Let us unveil the mysterious veil of this scientific giant and explore his three unknown aspects.
I. The Glory and Mistakes on the Path of Science
Undoubtedly, Einstein is one of the greatest physicists in human history. In 1905, at the age of 26, he proposed the "photon hypothesis" and successfully explained the "photoelectric effect". Since then, he has stood at the center of the world physics stage. Subsequently, the proposal of special relativity and general relativity made him step by step ascend to the altar and become the recognized greatest physicist after Galileo and Newton.
No matter how much honor is given to Einstein, we can't help but ask: Has this greatest physicist never made a mistake? The answer is affirmative. Some people have counted that Einstein has made more than twenty mistakes of various sizes in physical theories, among which there are four relatively famous ones.
First is the "gravitational wave" that was once highly publicized. The concept of "gravitational wave" was first proposed by Einstein. However, 20 years later, he thought that gravitational waves did not exist and even wrote a paper to indicate his change of view. But in February 2016, American scientists announced the detection of the existence of gravitational waves, completing the last piece of the puzzle of Einstein's general relativity.
The second is a small mistake about gravitational lensing. Gravitational lensing is like the myopia glasses we wear. It is a lens that can change the direction of light. In cosmology, if an astronomical body has sufficient mass, it will generate a strong gravitational force that can distort the passing light, just like a lens can change the path of light. This is gravitational lensing. Although gravitational lensing was also predicted by Einstein, he thought that humans could not observe it and that it was not important. But now, gravitational lensing has become one of the most powerful techniques for scientists to draw the cosmic map.
The third is the relatively large mistake of the cosmological constant. Einstein even called it his "biggest mistake in life". When Einstein published general relativity, all scientists thought that the universe was static. But when deduced by the relativistic formula, it was concluded that the universe is in motion. So, he added an adjustable variable to the formula, that is, the cosmological constant, to reverse the expansion of the universe and keep the universe static. But later we found that the universe is indeed constantly expanding. If Einstein had believed in his formula at that time, perhaps he would not have added this cosmological constant. Of course, the currently acceleratingly expanding universe proves that the cosmological constant has great existential value, but Einstein did not anticipate this at that time.
These three mistakes are ultimately caused by Einstein's lack of self-confidence. It also proves from the side that "relativity" is so grand and advanced that even its proposer himself dare not fully believe it.
The fourth mistake involves his dispute with another physics god, Bohr, about quantum mechanics. Although Einstein laid the foundation for quantum mechanics with the photoelectric effect theory (and for this reason he won the Nobel Prize in 1921), he opposed quantum mechanics all his life, which is related to the educational theory system he received. He launched a "protracted" struggle with Bohr (who won the Nobel Prize in 1922 with the atomic quantum model). Einstein racked his brains to design one experiment and model after another, trying to refute Bohr's quantum theory. However, in the end, facts proved that the experiments he designed all proved the correctness of quantum mechanics.
Einstein, who became famous at a young age, had no specific physics research results after he was in his thirties. However, his viewpoints and arguments still made great contributions to the development of physics, including the argument with Bohr. In his later years, he was committed to constructing the "unified field" but always achieved nothing.
In this famous photo of the Fifth Solvay Conference in 1927, among the 29 people, 17 won the Nobel Prize in Physics. Einstein's status allowed him to sit in the center of the front row, while Bohr could only sit at the far right of the second row. It was also at that conference that the two physics gods launched a series of intense debates around "quantum mechanics".
II. Complicated Love Life
On May 28, 2014, a drama "Dear Albert" depicting Einstein's love life was staged at the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts of New York University. Director Alan Alda said, "Einstein pursued simplicity all his life, but his private life is so chaotic that it couldn't be more chaotic."
Einstein's first love was his classmate Mileva, a Smart female mathematician from Serbia. The two often discussed mathematics and physics problems. Many people think that Mileva made a significant contribution to Einstein's publication of relativity. In 1901, Einstein's letter to Mileva was full of affection and pride. In his doctoral dissertation, he also mentioned that his wife could solve mathematical problems for him.
In 1903, Einstein got married to Mileva in spite of his family's opposition. After marriage, Mileva gave up her personal development for her husband's career. She took on all the housework and opened a family hotel for college students to subsidize the family. In 1905, Einstein began to emerge. He published five world-shaking papers in a row. Mileva proudly declared that they had completed an important work that could make her husband famous overnight.
However, after Einstein became famous, Mileva did not usher in the happy life she had expected. Since 1909, Einstein's romantic scandals have spread everywhere. In 1911, he went to Prague and fell in love with his cousin Elsa. In 1914, Mileva advised Einstein not to go to work in Berlin, Germany. Their marriage was on the verge of collapse. Einstein informed his wife in writing that if she wanted to maintain the marriage, she must meet a series of harsh requirements.
On February 14, 1919, after five years of separation, Mileva divorced Einstein. Four months later, Einstein married his cousin Elsa. But the letters from Elsa's daughter showed that Einstein was facing a difficult choice at that time - whether to marry the mother or the daughter. And the generous Elsa said that Einstein could choose either one.
After becoming a wife, although Elsa was "smarter" than Mileva and was willing to give Einstein the greatest freedom, Einstein's love life was still complicated. He fell in love with a married young woman who was the niece of a friend. After Elsa found out, she allowed Einstein to meet his lover twice a week.
Einstein had two illegitimate daughters in his life. The first one was born out of wedlock when Mileva was in love with him. She had mental disabilities. It seems that Einstein had never seen this daughter. The second one was born to a New York dancer after he immigrated to the United States in 1933. He never cared about her either. Later, his son secretly supported this half-sister.
In addition, Einstein was once inseparable from a beautiful woman named Margarita Konenkova and wrote many passionate love letters to her. Later, it was found that Margarita was a female spy sent by the Soviet Union to spy on the intelligence of the United States' manufacture of atomic bombs.
Einstein's two marriages ended in failure. Before his death in 1955, he was taken care of by his adopted daughter and secretary.
III. The Turbulent Circumstances in His Later Years
As we all know, the United States began to manufacture atomic bombs because Einstein took the lead in writing a letter to President Roosevelt. This led to the "Manhattan Project". However, as a world-class scientist with both prestige and ability and the initiator, Einstein was excluded from the "Manhattan Project".
From Einstein's arrival in the United States in 1933 to his death in 1955, for more than twenty years, he was always on the "top blacklist" of FBI Director Hoover. Einstein's name was on the list of 31 scientists initially designated for the "Manhattan Project", but the FBI crossed out his name on the grounds that "Einstein had communist tendencies".
Einstein's sympathy and support for human rights, anti-war, pacifists and even socialists all became reasons for the FBI to suspect him. The FBI's secret files declassified in 1983 showed that since the end of World War II, the surveillance of Einstein had intensified. His phone was tapped, his letters were opened privately, his trash can was rummaged through, and even his private residence was searched. The FBI also suspected that there was a secret cable under Einstein's residence that connected him to Moscow by telegraph.
In 1950, "McCarthyism" prevailed. The US Immigration Bureau once wanted to join hands with the FBI to cancel Einstein's US citizenship. At a dinner on July 1, 1948, Einstein said to the Polish ambassador to the United States: "I think you should realize now that the United States is no longer a free country. Someone must be recording our conversation. This hall is bugged and my residence is under close surveillance."
In 1955, Einstein died of illness in the United States. In his eulogy, then US President Eisenhower said that Einstein had found a free atmosphere in the process of pursuing knowledge and truth in the United States, and the American people were deeply proud of it. But in the FBI's secret files, Einstein declared in December 1947: "I came to the United States because I heard that there is great freedom in this country. I made a mistake by choosing the United States as a free country. This is an irreversible mistake in my life."
Jean-S Says
I used to be a sports reporter and was very disgust a certain way of news reporting: As long as one is good at sports, he is considered good at everything. For example, when writing about Ding Junhui, it is said that if he went to school, he would definitely be good at geometry because "snooker requires angle calculation"; it is astonishing that Yao Ming failed in advanced mathematics at Shanghai Jiao Tong University; there is also a joke about Zhang Zhen's dedication. It is said that he learns whatever he acts. In order to play Wu Qingyuan well., he learned Go in a short time and could suppress a professional third-dan player. But in fact, if a person is at the peak in one aspect, it doesn't mean he is impeccable in all aspects.
Einstein is undoubtedly a great physicist, but he is by no means a perfect person. Two days ago, a female reader was very moved after reading "Did We Have an Air Force in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression?" and said that her ideal was to marry a soldier. But Gao Zhihang would beat his wife.
Before his death, Einstein left the house at 112 Mercer Street, Princeton, to Miss Dukas, his secretary who had worked with him for decades. The condition was that the house must not be turned into a museum. He didn't want Mercer Street to become a place of pilgrimage. After Einstein's death, in accordance with his will, no obituary was issued and no funeral was held. When his body was cremated, only 12 of his closest people witnessed it. His ashes were scattered into an unknown river. There is no grave and no monument. People still don't know where he is buried.
Einstein opposed personified gods all his life. He is undoubtedly a great person in human history, but only limited to his professional field. Outside that field, he is just an ordinary person. Where in the world is there a perfect person? For you, for me, for him, for her, it is all the same. We should view great people objectively, appreciate their great achievements, and also understand their ordinariness and imperfections. Their stories remind us that everyone has their own advantages and disadvantages, and it is precisely these imperfections that constitute a colorful human world.