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(C) dianping.com, All Rights Reserved. 本站发布的所有内容，未经许可，不得转载，详见 。课外英语怎么学习，边玩边学提高成绩好方法
英文电影是很好的英语学习资料，而看电影学口语是很好的学习方法，正在被越来越多的英语爱好者所采用。不过，看电影不能盲目、单一。看英文电影时不妨运用“加减”法则来学口语，让自己在轻松愉快的心情下收获流利地道的口语。最后面中考助手还推荐了最适合初中生看的20+部英文电影推荐，不妨趁着周末看一两部放松一下学习的紧张！
加法原则：经典台词+流利俚语+合适电影
1. 经典台词是影片的点睛之笔，正如每当想起影片Forest Gump(《阿甘正传》)，很多人都会情不自禁的说出“Life was like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get”。
2. 俚语则是地道口语的重要构成之一，如在《princess diaries》(《公主日记》)中有一段Mia和外婆Clarisse的对话：
Mia: So, my mom said you wanted to talk to me about something. Shoot。
Clarisse: Oh, before I ''shoot,'' I have something I want to give you. Here。
“Shoot”常见的意思为“射击、开枪”。但作为一个俚语，shoot多表示“开始讲话”。
3. 电影是由声音和图像组合而成，包含了大量的信息。想通过看电影学习口语，就要从中选出适合口语学习的信息：经典台词、俚语和文化元素。
众所周知， 电影作为一种文化产品，必然包含一定的文化元素，比如风俗习惯、交际方式、政治体制、法律制度、宗教信仰等。
看电影时，多留意这些内容，将十分有助于你对影片的理解，
以上这三部分对于英语口语学习十分重要，相辅相成，缺一不可。
1.减少依赖字幕
根据自己的实际情况，来决定看电影时是否要显示字幕。
通常，看一部英文电影，最好先不要加字幕，而只利用画面和英文配音来了解剧情。
这样看2~3遍后，可以看一遍配中文字幕的，彻底了解剧情。
之后再看2~3遍配英文字幕的，达到看着字幕能理解具体情节的程度。
最后，隐去字幕，重新听英文看1遍，检测一下效果。
最终达到不看字幕也能理解台词，这样下来听力就没有问题了，而且积累到了很多的口语句子，为口语学习打下坚实的基础。
2.减少关注语法
电影的对白中往往会出现较多的俚语和省略的情况，句子中的主谓宾成分往往不是很完整，甚至有时候还看似有语法错误。
这时千万不要过分关注语法，因为口语往往较随意。
所以看电影时，一定不要太刻意追求语法的严谨，单纯地去听、去理解就好。
推荐20部适合初中生看的英文原版电影
《幸 福终点站》、《风雨哈佛路》、《阿甘正传》、《肖申克的救赎》、《放牛班的春天》、《朗读者》、《海上钢琴师》、《死亡诗社》、《大鱼》 、《忠义犬八公》、《歌舞青春》、《魔法师的学徒》、《三个白痴》、《美丽人生》、《音乐之声》、《天使爱美丽》、《心灵搏手》、《阿呆与阿瓜》、《料理 鼠王》、《纳尼亚传奇》、《艾尔文与花栗鼠》、《哈利波特》、《冰河世纪》、《新基督山伯爵》、《公主日记》。
随着网络电影的普通，各位可百度视频等大型网站进行在线观看！
以上各部电影简介如下：
1、《美丽人生》（ Life is Beautiful）：二次世界大战期间的意大利，由罗伯托·贝里尼 (Roberto Benigni)饰演的小人物─基多，来到图斯坎尼小镇追求他的理想与爱情，全然不顾法西斯主义之下的政府管制，在这里他与小学老师桃拉坠入情网。几年 后，他们拥有了一个小男孩─约书亚，而基多也开了一间书店。但好景不常，在法西斯主义政府统治下，一家人失散，被关入集中营，爸爸和儿子关在一起，妈妈则 被关在另外一处，在残酷无比的集中营里，爸爸以 玩游戏的方式让儿子仍保有童年的快乐与天真。最后，爸爸牺牲了自己，死于纳粹的枪下，而儿子回到妈妈身边。《美丽人生 / La Vita E Bella》最引人入胜之处，在于它以诙谐的方式看待无情的战争。在该片里，我们见识到战争的可怕，看见了人们的无助，却也看到了有人以幽默的态度自处。
2、《幸福终点站》：故事发生在上个世纪80年代末，维克多(汤姆·汉克斯 饰)是一个斯洛文尼亚人，为了逃避祖国的战乱，他决定移民美国，带着简单的行李买了飞往美国的机票。当他在终点站纽约的肯尼迪机场下机准备出机场时，却被 拦了下来。原来，他的祖国发生了政变，而且还成为了美国的敌对国！维克多的护照和身份证件，以及移民文件都全都失去了效用，他被扣在了机场。瞬时间，维克 多成了一个没国没家的孤立的人，他成为国际政治变化的牺牲品。在被扣在机场期间，维克多只有两个选择：要么返回祖国，可是他的国家政变后，已经不再承认办 理了移民手续的他是国民；要么拿到有效的证件，进入移民的美国，但他的证件显然已经失效而且再也无法补回了。 站在这个不属于自己的国家，看着来来往往陌生的人群，维克多不禁感到迷茫。无奈之下，他只能留在机场睡在大厅的椅子上，在卫生间里洗澡，靠为路过的乘客服 务生活。他现在拥有的只有自己不自由的身体，以及一个小皮箱，里面装着换洗的衣服、一把剃须刀和已经作费的身份证明。 一次偶然的机会下，维克多认识了一名美丽空姐艾米丽娅(凯瑟琳·泽塔·琼斯 饰)。艾米丽娅开始很同情维克多的遭遇，帮他介绍些小工作和与机场交涉关系，慢慢的她爱上了这个细腻而憨厚的男人。一场“塞翁失马”的好像就这样上演了。 最终，维克多在这个机场邂逅了美国的一切，也邂逅了属于他的幸福。
3、《阿甘正传》：阿甘（汤姆·汉克斯 饰）于二战结束后不久出生在美国南方阿拉巴马州一个闭塞的小镇，他先天弱智，智商只有75，然而他的妈妈是一个性格坚强的女性，她常常鼓励阿甘“傻人有傻 福”，要他自强不息。阿甘像普通孩子一样上学，并且认识了一生的朋友和至爱珍妮（罗宾·莱特·潘 饰），在珍妮和妈妈的爱护下，阿甘凭着上帝赐予的“飞毛腿”开始了一生不停的奔跑。阿甘成为橄榄球巨星、越战英雄、乒乓球外交使者、亿万富翁，但是，他始 终忘不了珍妮，几次匆匆的相聚和离别，更是加深了阿甘的思念。有一天，阿甘收到珍妮的信，他们终于又要见面。
4、《肖申克的救赎》(The Shawshank Redemption)：改编自斯蒂芬·金《不同的季节》中收录的《丽塔海华丝及萧山克监狱的救赎》。本片的主题是“希望”，在牢狱题材电影中突破了类型片的限制，拍出了同类作品罕见的人情味和温馨感觉。时至今日，本片在国内外各大电影网站的电影排行中始终稳坐前十。
5、《放牛班的春天》：世界著名指挥家皮埃尔·莫安琦重回法国故地出席母亲的葬 礼，他的旧友送给他一本陈旧的日记，看着这本当年音乐启蒙老师克莱门特遗下的日记，皮埃尔慢慢细味着老师当年的心境，一幕幕童年的回忆也浮出自己记忆的深 潭。克莱门特是一个才华横溢的音乐家，不过在1949年的法国乡村，他没有发展自己才华的机会，最终成为了一间男子寄宿学校的助理教师。到任后克莱门特发 现学校的校长以残暴高压的手段管治这班问题少年，性格沉静的克莱门特尝试用自己的方法改善这种状况，令他惊奇的是这所寄宿学校竟然没有音乐课，他决定用音 乐的方法来打开学生们封闭的心灵。
6、《朗读者》：是一套2008年的英国舞台剧电影，以1995年本哈德·施林 克所创作的小说《朗读者》为背景。故事讲述一名于1950年代的德国少年米高和一名中年女子汉娜展开一段忘年恋，但汉娜不久不告而别。米高后来成为年轻律 师，再度见到汉娜时，她由于她在战争后期中担任一个集中营警卫时的行为成为一名因战争犯罪受审的被告。米高知道汉娜一直有一个她深信比她以往纳粹时代更糟 的秘密，这个秘密足以推翻对她的指控。但米高一时的犹豫铸就了两人终身的遗憾。
7、《海上钢琴师》：本片讲述了一个钢琴天才传奇的一生。1900年，Virginian号豪华邮轮上，一个孤儿被 遗弃在头等舱，由船上的水手抚养长大，取名1900（蒂姆•罗斯 饰）。1900慢慢长大，显示了出了无师自通的非凡钢琴天赋，在船上的乐队表演钢琴，每个听过他演奏的人，都被深深打动。爵士乐鼻祖杰尼听说了1900的 高超技艺，专门上船和他比赛，最后自叹弗如，黯然离去。可惜，这一切的事情都发生在海上，1900从来不愿踏上陆地，直到有一天，他爱上了一个女孩，情愫 在琴键上流淌。他会不会为了爱情，踏上陆地开始新的生活，用他的琴声惊艳世界？他将怎样谱写自己非凡的人生。
8、《心灵捕手》：麻省理工学院的数学教授蓝波在席上公布了一道困难的数学题，却被年轻的清洁工威尔（马特·戴蒙 饰）解了出来。可是威尔却是个问题少年，成天和好朋友查克（本·阿弗莱特 饰）等人四处闲逛，打架滋事。当蓝波找到这个天才的时候，他正因为打架袭警被法庭宣判送进看守所。蓝波向法官求情保释，才使他免于牢狱之灾。
9、《死亡诗社》：1959年，威尔顿预备学院以它凝重的风格受到了当时人们的尊敬。在那里，教育的模式是固定的， 不仅单调而且束缚了思想。然而这一切在一个新教师的手中发生了改变。John Keating 反传统的教育方法给学院带来了一丝生气：在他的课堂里，他鼓励学生站在课桌上，用一个崭新的视角去观察周围的世界；他向学生介绍了许多有思想的诗歌；他所 提倡的自由发散式的思维哲学在学生中引起了巨大的反响。渐渐地，一些人接受了他，开始勇敢地面对每一天，把握他们自己的人生。不幸也在这时发生了。
10、《大鱼》：一个美丽的亲情童话。父亲爱德华(亚伯特·芬尼 Albert Finney 饰)年轻时，很爱给年幼的儿子讲自己的传奇经历，他自称在阿拉巴马旅行推销员时，经历过很多光怪陆离，魔幻荒诞的事情。威尔(比利·克鲁德普 Billy Crudup 饰)并不相信，觉得是父亲在虚荣和浮夸，父子关系渐渐疏离。直到父亲得了癌症，不久于人世了，儿子决定回去见父亲最后一面。儿子面对病榻上的父亲时，父亲 又开始说他早年的经历：他曾经为了离开小村庄去大城市闯荡，在途中遇到巫婆和巨人，还一起去了幽灵庄，再后来，认识了一个神奇的马戏团演员，一个亚洲艺 人，一条怎么也抓不到的大鱼，还有怎样跟母亲一见钟情，定下终身……从父亲病弱的气息里，威尔仿佛领悟到以前从来没有过的感受，也许父亲的叙述有修饰的成 分，但在他的心中，那些经历到生命的最后一刻仍是充满激情和想象，而父亲终于在儿子的理解和深爱下闭上眼睛。
11、《忠义犬八公》：秋田县近藤家的宠物狗生下了4条小狗，由于这是为数不多的纯种秋田犬，所以被送到了县土木科 长间濑手中。间濑将其中的一条作为礼物赠给了东京大学教授上野秀次郎。教授的女儿千鹤子为此欢欣不已，而夫妻两人却面露难色。自从以前家养的狗死去之后， 他们一直反对再养宠物，但在千鹤子的坚持下，两人只好接受下来。原本约定由千鹤子负责照看小狗，但她突然怀孕，急急开始张罗婚礼，于是教授便全全接管了小 狗，为它起名阿八。阿八在教授家愉快自由地成长。每天早晨，阿八都会送教授去涉谷车站，待下午五点半又去接教授回家，风雨无阻。一天，送教授出门的阿八突然狂吠着冲回家，原来教授脑溢血发作倒下。教授死后，阿八被桥本收养，却数次逃走，流浪于野外。最后，依然每天下午去车站等待教授的阿八在大雪中结束了它的一生。
12、《歌舞青春》：从一部迪士尼频道的原创电视电影开始，在美播出后迅速走红，引爆了具有轰动性的跨娱乐平台、跨 越国际市场的全球青年新文化潮流。2006年1月美国首播，随即引爆炫风，电视收视长红，缔造新纪录。获得艾美奖6项提名，并拿下两项大奖(最佳儿童节 目、最佳舞蹈编排)。此外还获得2006年全美青少年票选3项大奖。
13、《魔法师的学徒》：是迪士尼影业2010年暑期档的巨献之一，本片由 《珍珠港》、《勇闯夺命岛》的牌制作人杰瑞o布鲁克海默制片、乔o德特杜巴执导，除了“影帝”尼古拉斯o凯奇担纲主演外，曾在《蜘蛛侠2》中扮演大反派 “章鱼博士”的阿尔弗雷德o莫里纳将继续他的反派路线。故事讲述了发生在现代纽约的真人奇幻童话，围绕一个魔法师和他不听话的学徒展开。这个魔法师正准备 训练他的学徒，以帮助他对抗邪恶黑势力。
14、《三个白痴》：印度电影《三个白痴》是一部可以让目前国内绝大多数自我感觉良好的导演感到惭愧的电影,尽管该片无大明星,无大制作,选材的出发点居然是被认为很难出彩的大学校园主题。故事讲述了三个不同出身的大学生如何在某印度高等工科学府里"熬"到工程学学位的故事。
15、《音乐之声》：玛利亚（朱丽·安德鲁斯 饰）是一个年轻活泼的修女，喜欢在大自然下高声歌唱，所以她常常忘记了修道院里的规矩。院长认为玛利亚并不属于规矩严格的修道院。院长与众嬷嬷商量后，决 定安排玛利亚到一位名叫特拉普（克里斯托弗·普卢默 饰）上校家当家庭教师。上校的妻子去世多年，留下7个孩子，他要求对孩子严格管教。他告诉玛利亚在他家的家庭教师都做不长久，都是因为孩子的恶作剧。玛利 亚果然也遭到了恶作剧，可是这位善良的老师并没有告诉他们的父亲，而是像个母亲一样照顾孩子，很快跟孩子打成一片。上校也渐渐在玛利亚的引导下改变了对孩 子们的态度。上校与玛利亚之间发生了感情，他们完婚后回到了已被纳粹占领的奥地利，上校并不想为纳粹办事，一家人准备逃跑。
16、《天使爱美丽》：一个现代灰姑娘的童话，镜头底下的巴黎是比明信片更加明媚的世外桃源，把少女的悸动和憧憬化 成一幕幕迷人的画卷。完全属于一个人的奇想世界。带点无伤大雅的小恶作剧，穿行在巴黎艳丽的阳光底下。心地澄澈，宛若天使凡落。那么多的奇思妙想，于是得 以在惊喜中看一个孤独的女孩在守望爱的旅途中跋涉。由奥黛丽·塔图主演，爱情喜剧类电影。
17、《阿呆与阿瓜》：是金·凯瑞主演的在1994年上映喜剧电影，讲述了金·凯瑞饰演的罗伊·克里斯玛特与杰夫· 丹尼尔斯饰演的好友哈里·邓恩一对蠢哥们间的闹出的笑话故事。2003年上映的《当阿呆遇上阿瓜》是《阿呆和阿瓜》的前传，讲述了时间一下子被拉回 1986年，两人的高中时代发生的故事。
18、《料理鼠王》：小老鼠雷米在嗅觉方面有着无与伦比的天赋，不想过与垃圾堆为伴的生活，心怀成为五星大厨的梦 想。一个偶然的机会，他认识了古斯特餐厅的学徒林奎尼，这个倒霉的学徒生性害羞，在厨艺上更是没有什么天赋，并且遭到餐厅大厨的排挤，即将被解雇。这一人 一鼠结成了奇特的联盟：雷米奉献自己极富创造力的大脑。操作林奎尼前台“表演”。在雷米的帮助下，林奎尼不但成为新的“天才厨师”，获得了美女同事的爱 情，还挫败了大厨的阴谋，成为古斯特餐厅的合法继承人。突如起来的成功让林奎尼有些不知所措，想摆脱自己的傀儡身份，把雷米赶出了厨房。古斯特餐厅的成 功，引起了苛刻的美食评论家科隆的注意，准备一尝林奎尼的手艺，重新为餐厅评定星级；而不甘失败的前大厨，蠢蠢欲动，想要找到林奎尼一夜成名的秘密。失去 了雷米，林奎尼该如何面对这些问题…
19、《纳尼亚传奇》：二战期间，四个小孩子随着父母来到乡下壁战。这些乡村住宅古色古香，其中有一个房间里摆着一个大衣柜。一天，几个小孩子玩捉迷藏，露西（乔基·亨莉 Georgie Henley饰）躲进了衣柜里，眼前却意外出 现了一个神奇的世界——那里白雪皑皑，荒无人烟。她在雪地上走着走着，遇上了人羊怪物。其他孩子也一一进入这个魔法衣橱。他们得知里面的王国叫纳尼亚，正 在被一个邪恶的女巫所统治。女巫想把这几个外来者一网打尽，同时这些孩子得知纳尼亚正在女巫的黑暗统治后，和雄狮亚斯兰并肩作战，帮助纳尼亚开始了复国之 举。
20、《艾尔文与花栗鼠》：戴维·塞维尔（杰森·李 Jason Lee 饰）是洛杉矶一名郁郁不得志的词曲作者，他不分白天黑夜，努力创作，但作品总也得不到唱片公司老板的 赏识。某天，满腔愤怒的戴维在家中大发雷霆，这时，三只来自大山的花栗鼠艾尔文（贾斯汀·朗 Justin Long 配音）、西蒙（马修·格雷·古柏勒 Matthew Gray Gubler 配音）、西尔多（杰西·麦卡尼 Jesse McCartney 配音）闯入戴维的生活。戴维惊讶地发现，这三个顽皮胡闹的小家伙不仅会说话，而且还能和声唱歌。于是他和小家伙们达成协议，它们可以在家中居住，但是必须 演唱戴维创作的歌曲，妙趣横生的故事也由此展开……本片荣获2008年儿童选择奖最受欢迎电影。
21、《哈利波特》：这个到不用介绍了。近几年很出名。
22、《冰河世纪》：2012年的一天，位于格陵兰附近的海克拉火山爆发，这次毁灭性的喷发炸断了冰川架，一块庞大 的冰川借着惯性以极快的速度向美国袭来。居住在美国缅因州的气象学家比尔·哈特（派屈克·莱比尔托 饰）正载着儿子内尔森（Nick Afanasiev 饰）一起送女儿朱莉娅（Katie Wilson 饰）乘飞机前往纽约。在路上他从格陵兰科考队的朋友那里得知冰川炸裂的消息，于是试图带着儿子和妻子特丽（朱丽·麦库拉芙 饰）离开冰川必然路过的缅因。
23、《新基督山伯爵》：年轻的船长爱德蒙准备和心爱的未婚妻美塞结婚，然而副船长费南德因嫉妒爱德蒙的一切而设计 使他终身被关进了位于孤岛上防守最严密的监狱，美塞也投入了费南德的怀抱。13年的牢狱生涯，爱德蒙在狱中结识了一位狱友，在狱友的指点下爱德华制定了周 密的逃跑计划，并且，爱德华获得了一张藏有巨大宝藏的地图。终于，一个月黑风高的晚上，爱德华冒着九死一生的危险成功从监狱出逃。找到了宝藏后，爱德蒙利 用金钱为自己买了一个伯爵的头衔，称为基督山伯爵。改名换姓之后，爱德蒙开始踏上他的复仇之路。
24、《公主日记》：是迪士尼公司所创的一部电影，影片由加里马歇尔执导，安妮海瑟薇等主演，讲述一个纽约城里一个普普通通的女孩儿，甚至在学校被视为透明，但被证实是一个临近小国的公主，而后公主由皇后奶奶调教为举止优雅的真正公主，并最终选择担当起治理国家的责任的故事。
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阿尔伯特?爱因斯坦 Albert Einstein 英文生平简介。
This PDF file contains most of the text of the Web exhibit &Einstein C Image and Impact& at http://www.aip.org/history/einstein. NOT included are many secondary pages reached by clicking on the illustrations, which contain some additional information and photo credits. You must also visit the Web exhibit to explore hyperlinks within the exhibit and to other exhibits, and to hear voice clips, for which the text is supplied here.Brought to you by The Center for History of Physics Copyright
- American Institute of Physics Site created Nov. 1996, revised May 2004http://www.aip.org/history/einstein/Page 1 of 93Table of ContentsFormative Years I Was Einstein's Brain Different? Formative Years II Formative Years III Formative Years IV The Great Works I Atoms in a Crystal… E=mc2 Einstein Explains the Equivalence of Energy and Matter The Great Works II World Fame I A Gravitational Lens… World Fame II Public Concerns I Public Concerns II Einstein Speaks on the Fate of the European Jews Public Concerns III The Quantum and the Cosmos I You're Looking at Quanta… The Quantum and the Cosmos II A Black Hole… The Quantum and the Cosmos: At Home The Nuclear Age I The Nuclear Age II Einstein Speaks on Nuclear Weapons and World Peace… Nuclear Age: At Home Science and Philosophy I Can the Laws of Physics be Unified? Science and Philosophy II The World As I See It, An Essay By Einstein Einstein's Third paradise, By Gerald Holton Einstein's Time, By Peter Galison How Did Einstein Discover Relativity? By John Stachel Einstein on the Photoelectric Effect, By David Cassidy Einstein on Brownian Motion, By David Cassidy An Albert Einstein Chronology Einstein Chronology for 1905 Off the Net: Books on Einstein More Einstein Info & Links Einstein Site Contents Exhibit Credits 3 4 5 7 8 9 11 12 14 15 17 18 19 21 23 24 25 27 30 31 32 33 34 36 38 39 41 42 44 45 47 54 65 75 78 81 83 85 90 92 93http://www.aip.org/history/einstein/Page 2 of 93Einstein's parents, Hermann and Pauline, middle-class Germans. &I was the son of entirely irreligious (Jewish) parents,& Einstein recalled. &There was this huge world out there, independent of us human beings and standing before us like a great, eternal riddle, at least partly accessible to our inspection and thought. The contemplation of that world beckoned like a liberation.&One story Einstein liked to tell about his childhood was of a &wonder& he saw when he was four or five years old: a magnetic compass. The needle's invariable northward swing, guided by an invisible force, profoundly impressed the child. The compass convinced him that there had to be &something behind things, something deeply hidden.& Even as a small boy Einstein was self-sufficient and thoughtful. According to family legend he was a slow talker at first, pausing to consider what he would say. His sister remembered the concentration and perseverance with which he would build up houses of cards to many stories. The boy's The house where Einstein was born. thought was stimulated by his uncle, an engineer, and by a medical student who ate dinner once a week at the Einsteins'.&At the age of 12, I experienced a wonder in a booklet dealing with Euclidean plane geometry, which came into my hands at the beginning of a school year. Here were assertions, as for example the intersection of the three altitudes of a triangle in one point, which -- though by no means evident -- could nevertheless be proved with such certainty that any doubt appeared to be out of the question. This lucidity and certainty made an indescribable impression on me.&http://www.aip.org/history/einstein/Page 3 of 93Although he got generally good grades (and was outstanding in mathematics), Einstein hated the academic high school he was sent to in Munich, where success depended on memorization and obedience to arbitrary authority. His real studies were done at home with books on mathematics, physics, and philosophy. A teacher suggested Einstein leave school, since his very presence destroyed the other students' respect for the teacher. The fifteen-year-old boy did quit school in mid-term to join his parents, who had moved to Italy. School class photograph in Munich, 1889. Einstein is in the front row, second from right.Was Einstein's Brain Different?Of course it was―people's brains are as different as their faces. In his lifetime many wondered if there was anything especially different in Einstein's. He insisted that on his death his brain be made available for research. When Einstein died in 1955, pathologist Thomas Harvey quickly preserved the brain and made samples and sections. He reported that he could see nothing unusual. The variations were within the range of normal human variations. There the matter rested until 1999. Inspecting samples that Harvey had carefully preserved, Sandra F. Witelson and colleagues discovered that Einstein's brain lacked a particular small wrinkle (the parietal operculum) that most people have. Perhaps in compensation, other regions on each side were a bit enlarged―the inferior parietal lobes. These regions are known to have something to do with visual imagery and mathematical thinking. Thus Einstein was apparently better equipped than most people for a certain type of thinking. Yet others of his day were probably at least as well equipped―Henri Poincar and David Hilbert, for example, were formidable visual and mathematical thinkers, both were on the trail of relativity, yet Einstein got far ahead of them. What he did with his brain depended on the nurturing of family and friends, a solid German and Swiss education, and his own bold personality. A late bloomer: Even at the age of nine Einstein spoke hesitantly, and his parents feared that he was below average intelligence. Did he have a learning or personality disability (such as &Asperger's syndrome,& a mild form of autism)? There is not enough historical evidence to say. Probably Albert was simply a thoughtful and somewhat shy child. If he had some difficulties in school, the problem was probably resistance to the authoritarian German teachers, perhaps compounded by the awkward situation of a Jewish boy in a Catholic school.http://www.aip.org/history/einstein/Page 4 of 93&It is almost a miracle that modern teaching methods have not yet entirely strangled the holy
for what this delicate little plant needs more than anything, besides stimulation, is freedom.&Einstein's family had moved to Italy to try to establish a business, and he joined them for a glorious half year of freedom from work and anxiety. In 1895 he took the entrance examination for the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology -- and he failed. He was advised to study at a Swiss school in A here his teachers were humane and his ideas were set free. His thoughts turned to the theory of electromagnetism formulated by James Clerk Maxwell, seldom taught even in universities at the turn of the century.Einstein with his sister.From a classroom essay Einstein wrote in French at the age of 16, explaining why he would like to study theoretical mathematics or physics: &Above all it is my individual disposition for abstract and mathematical thought, my lack of imagination and practical talent. My inclinations have also led me to this resolve. T one always likes to do things for which one has talent. And then there is a certain independence in the scientific profession which greatly pleases me.&The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (&ETH&), Zurich.http://www.aip.org/history/einstein/Page 5 of 93Einstein graduated from the Aarau school and entered the Institute of Technology in Zurich. Around this time he recognized that physics was his true subject. Only there could he &seek out the paths that led to the depths.& He also realized that he could never be an outstanding student. Fortunately his friend Marcel Grossmann had the conventional traits Einstein lacked. While Einstein worked in the library or the laboratory, Grossmann took excellent notes at the mathematics lectures, and gladly shared them with his friend before examinations. Einstein later wrote, &I would rather not speculate on what would have become of me without these notes.&Einstein with his friend Marcel Grossman (left).Einstein grew familiar with the successes of past scientists who had tried to explain the world entirely through atoms or fluids, interacting like parts of a machine. But he learned that Maxwell's theory of electricity and magnetism was defying efforts to reduce it to mechanical processes. Through a new friend, the engineer Michele Besso, Einstein came to the writings of Ernst Mach -- a skeptical critic of accepted ideas in physics.http://www.aip.org/history/einstein/Page 6 of 93&As a somewhat precocious young man, I was struck by the futility of the hopes and the endeavors that most men chase restlessly throughout life. And I soon realized the cruelty of that chase, which in those days was more carefully disguised with hypocrisy and glittering words than it is today.&The patent office in Bern. After Einstein graduated with an undistinguished record, he made a number of efforts to get a university job, and failed. He found only occasional jobs on the periphery of the academic world. He felt he was a burden on his none too prosperous family, and wondered if he had been mistaken in trying to become a physicist. Finally he got a position at the Swiss Patent Office in Bern. It was &a kind of salvation,& he said. The regular salary and the stimulating work evaluating patent claims freed Einstein. He now had time to devote his thought to the most basic problems of physics of his time, and began to publish scientific papers.Einstein's closest friend, with whom he walked home from the Patent Office every day, was Michele Besso. Einstein thought him &the best sounding board in Europe& for scientific ideas. With other friends in Bern, all unknown to the academic world, Einstein met regularly to read and discuss books on science and philosophy. They called themselves the Olympia Academy, mocking the official bodies that dominated science. Einstein's began to attract respect with his published papers (described in the next section), and in 1909 he was appointed associate professor at the University of Zurich. He was also invited to present his theories before the annual convention of German scientists. He met many people he had known only through their writings, such as the physicist Max Planck of Berlin. Soon Einstein was invited to the German University in Prague as full professor. Here he met a visiting Austrian physicist, Paul Ehrenfest. &Within a few hours we were true friends,& Einstein recalled, &as though our dreams and aspirations were made for each other.&Michele Besso&Academy& members Konrad Habricht, Maurice Solovine, and Einstein. http://www.aip.org/history/einstein/Page 7 of 93At the Zurich Polytechnic a romance had arisen between the handsome and witty would-be science teacher and a young Serbian woman, Mileva Maric, the only woman in Albert's physics class. Einstein's family opposed any talk of marriage, even after Mileva gave birth to a daughter (who was apparently given up for adoption). The pair finally married in 1903 after Einstein got his job at the Patent Office. Einstein discussed physics with Mileva, but there is no solid evidence that she made any significant contribution to his work. In 1904 a son was born, and a second in 1910.Einstein, his wife Mileva, and their son.Through letters, visits, and science meetings, Einstein came to know most of the major physicists of Europe (there were not many in those days). In 1912 Einstein was invited back to the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology as professor. Here he rejoined his old friend Marcel Grossmann, now professor of mathematics. With Grossmann's aid, Einstein studied the mathematical theories and techniques which he found necessary for his work toward a new theory of gravitation. Meanwhile, Einstein was being introduced to a different sort of world by another friend, Friedrich Adler: the world of the Second International and its attempt to halt the growth of international rivalries in Europe.Einstein in 1912 In 1914, the German government gave Einstein a senior research appointment in Berlin, along with a membership in the prestigious Prussian Academy of Sciences. When Einstein had left his native land as a youth, he had renounced German citizenship and all of the militarist German society. But Berlin -- with no teaching duties and a galaxy of top scientists for colleagues -- could not be resisted. It was the highest level a scientific career could ordinarily reach. &With such fame, not much time remains for his wife,& Mileva complained. &I am very starved for love.& Einstein felt suffocated in the increasingly strained and gloomy relationship. He found solace in a love affair with his cousin, Elsa Lwenthal. Mileva and Albert separated in 1914, after bitter arguments, and divorced in 1919. That same year he married Elsa, and settled in with her and her two grown daughters by a previous marriage. &The Lord has put into him so much that's beautiful, and I find him wonderful,& Elsa later wrote, &even though life at his side is enervating and difficult.& (Click here for more on Einstein at home.) http://www.aip.org/history/einstein/Page 8 of 93&A storm broke loose in my mind.&Einstein sent to the Annalen der Physik, the leading German physics journal, a paper with a new understanding of the structure of light. He argued that light can act as though it consists of discrete, independent particles of energy, in some ways like the particles of a gas. A few years before, Max Planck's work had contained the first suggestion of a discreteness in energy, but Einstein went far beyond this. His revolutionary proposal seemed to contradict the universally accepted theory that light consists of smoothly oscillating electromagnetic waves. But Einstein showed that light quanta, as he called the particles of energy, could help to explain phenomena being studied by experimental physicists. For example, he made clear how light ejects electrons from metals. Einstein in the patent office. Einstein discovered light quanta by pondering experiments on particles discovered only a few years earlier. See our Web exhibit, The Discovery of the Electron.The Annalen der Physik received another paper from Einstein. The wellknown kinetic energy theory explained heat as an effect of the ceaseless agit Einstein proposed a way to put the theory to a new and crucial experimental test. If tiny but visible particles were suspended in a liquid, he said, the irregular bombardment by the liquid's invisible atoms should cause the suspended particles to carry out a random jittering dance. Just such a random dance of microscopic particles had long since been observed by biologists (It was called &Brownian motion,& an unsolved mystery). Now Einstein had explained the motion in detail. He had reinforced the kinetic theory, and he had created a powerful new tool for studying the movement of atoms.&When the Special Theory of Relativity began to germinate in me, I was visited by all sorts of nervous conflicts... I used to go away for weeks in a state of confusion.&http://www.aip.org/history/einstein/Page 9 of 93Einstein sent the Annalen der Physik a paper on electromagnetism and motion. Since the time of Galileo and Newton, physicists had known that laboratory measurements of mechanical processes could never show any difference between an apparatus at rest and an apparatus moving at constant speed in a straight line. Objects behave the same way on a uniformly moving ship as o this is called the Principle of Relativity. But according to the electromagnetic theory, developed by Maxwell and refined by Lorentz, light should not obey this principle. Their electromagnetic theory predicted that measurements on the velocity of light would show the effects of motion. Yet no such effect had been detected in any of the ingenious and delicate experiments that physicists had devised: the velocity of light did not vary. Einstein had long been convinced that the Principle of Relativity must apply to all phenomena, mechanical or not. Now he found a way to show that this principle was compatible with electromagnetic theory after all. As Einstein later remarked, reconciling these seemingly incompatible ideas required &only& a new and more careful consideration of the concept of time. His new theory, later called the special theory of relativity, was based on a novel analysis of space and time -- an analysis so clear and revealing that it can be understood by beginning science students. Time and motion: the old clock tower and an electrified trolley in Bern.Einstein reported a remarkable consequence of his special theory of relativity: if a body emits a certain amount of energy, then the mass of that body must decrease by a proportionate amount. Meanwhile he wrote a friend, &The relativity principle in connection with the Maxwell equations demands that the mass is a direct measure for the energy light transfers mass... This thought is amusing and infectious, but I cannot possibly know whether the good Lord does not laugh at it and has led me up the garden path.& Einstein and many others were soon convinced of its truth. The relationship is expressed as an equation: E=mc2.http://www.aip.org/history/einstein/Page 10 of 93Atoms in a Crystal...This is an image of silicon atoms arranged on a face of a crystal. It is impossible to &see& atoms this way using ordinary light. The image was made by a Scanning Tunneling Microscope, a device that &feels& the cloud of electrons that form the outer surface of atoms, rather as a phonograph needle feels the grooves in a record. It had long been suspected that crystals are made of atoms lined up in neat arrays. But at the start of the 20th century there was no way to actually see them. Some scientists thought the &atom& in physics theories might be merely a sort of abstract device useful for computations. Einstein's paper gave one of the first convincing proofs that atoms do exist as real objects.http://www.aip.org/history/einstein/Page 11 of 93&In light of knowledge attained, the happy achievement seems almost a matter of course, and any intelligent student can grasp it without too much trouble. But the years of anxious searching in the dark, with their intense longing, their alterations of confidence and exhaustion and the final emergence into the light -- only those who have experienced it can understand it.&Einstein's theories sprang from a ground of ideas prepared by decades of experiments. One of the most striking, in retrospect, was done in Cleveland, Ohio, by Albert Michelson and Edward Morley in 1887. Their apparatus, shown above, was a massive stone block with mirrors and crisscrossing light beams, giving an accurate measurement of any change in the velocity of light. Michelson and Morley expected to see their light beams shifted by the swift motion of the earth in space. To their surprise, they could not detect any change. It is debatable whether Einstein paid heed to this particular experiment, but his work provided an explanation of the unexpected result through a new analysis of space and time. As noted on the previous page, when Einstein used his equations to study the motion of a body, they pointed him to a startling insight about the body's mass and energy.http://www.aip.org/history/einstein/Page 12 of 93The deep connection Einstein discovered between energy and mass is expressed in the equation E=mc2. Here E represents energy, m represents mass, and c2 is a very large number, the square of the speed of light. Full confirmation was slow in coming. In Paris in 1933, Irène and Frédéric Joliot-Curie took a photograph showing the conversion of energy into mass. A quantum of light, invisible here, carries energy up from beneath. In the middle it changes into mass -- two freshly created particles which curve away from each other.Conversion of energy into massMeanwhile in Cambridge, England, the reverse process was seen: the conversion of mass into pure energy. With their apparatus John Cockcroft and E.T.S. Walton broke apart an atom. The fragments had slightly less mass in total than the original atom, but they flew apart with great energy.http://www.aip.org/history/einstein/Page 13 of 93Einstein Explains the Equivalence of Energy and Matter&It followed from the special theory of relativity that mass and energy are both but different manifestations of the same thing -- a somewhat unfamiliar conception for the average mind. Furthermore, the equation E is equal to m c-squared, in which energy is put equal to mass, multiplied by the square of the velocity of light, showed that very small amounts of mass may be converted into a very large amount of energy and vice versa. The mass and energy were in fact equivalent, according to the formula mentioned before. This was demonstrated by Cockcroft and Walton in 1932, experimentally.&http://www.aip.org/history/einstein/Page 14 of 93&The four men who laid the foundations of physics on which I have been able to construct my theory... &GalileoIsaac NewtonJames Clerk MaxwellHendrik Antoon LorentzAs early as 1907, while Einstein and others explored the implications of his special theory of relativity, he was already thinking about a more general theory. The special theory had shown how to relate the measurements http://www.aip.org/history/einstein/Page 15 of 93made in one laboratory to the measurements made in another laboratory moving in a uniform way with respect to the first laboratory. Could he extend the theory to deal with laboratories moving in arbitrary ways, speeding up, slowing down, changing direction? Einstein saw a possible link between such accelerated motion and the familiar force of gravity. He was impressed by a fact known to Galileo and Newton but not fully appreciated before Einstein puzzled over it. All bodies, however different, if released from the same height will fall with exactly the same constant acceleration (in the absence of air resistance). Like the invariant velocity of light on which Einstein had founded his special theory of relativity, here was an invariance that could be the starting point for a theory.&The physicist cannot simply surrender to the philosopher the critical contemplation of the the for he himself knows best and feels most surely where the shoe pinches.... he must try to make clear in his own mind just how far the concepts which he uses are justified... The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking.&As he often did in his work, Einstein used a &thought experiment.& Suppose that a scientist is enclosed in a large box somewhere, and that he releases a stone. The scientist sees the stone fall to the floor of the box with a constant acceleration. He might conclude that his box is in a place where there is a force of gravity pulling downward. But this might not be true. The entire box could be free from gravity, but accelerating upward in empty space on a rocket: the stone could be stationary and the floor rising to meet it. The physicist in the box cannot, Einstein noted, tell the difference between the two cases. Therefore there must be some profound connection between accelerated motion and the force of gravity. It remained to work out this connection. Einstein began to search for particular equations -- ones that would relate the measurements made by two observers who are moving in an arbitrary way with respect to one another. The search was arduous, with entire years spent in blind alleys. Einstein had to master more elaborate mathematical techniques than he had ever expected to need, and to work at a higher level of abstraction than ever before. His friend Michele Besso gave crucial help here. Meanwhile his life was unsettled. He separated from his wife. And he began to participate in politics after the First World War broke out.&I have just completed the most splendid work of my life...& --to his son Hans Albert, 1915Success in his theoretical work was sealed in 1915. The new equations of gravitation had an essential logical simplicity, despite their unfamiliar mathematical form. To describe the action of gravity, the equations showed how the presence of matter warped the very framework of space and time. This warping would determine how an object moved. Einstein tested his theory by correctly calculating a small discrepancy in the motion of the planet Mercury, a discrepancy that astronomers had long been at a loss to explain.http://www.aip.org/history/einstein/Page 16 of 93&Dear Mother, -- Good news today. H.A. Lorentz has wired me that the British expeditions have actually proved the light deflection near the sun.&Einstein's new general theory of relativity predicted a remarkable effect: when a ray of light passes near a massive body, the ray should be bent. For example, starlight passing near the sun should be slightly deflected by gravity. This deflection could be measured when the sun's own light was blocked during an eclipse. Einstein predicted a specific amount of deflection, and the prediction spurred British astronomers to try to observe a total eclipse in May 1919. Feverish preparations began as the war ended. Two expeditions, one to an island off West Africa and the other to Brazil, succeeded in photographing stars near the eclipsed sun. The starlight had been deflected just as Einstein had predicted.In a letter to an astronomer in 1913, Einstein included a sketch (right) that showed how gravity should deflect light near the sun, making stars appear to shift their positions. A photograph (below) from one of the expeditions shows the eclipsed sun. Some stars are circled and artificially enhanced in this reproduction. These apparent positions deviated from the positions of the stars photographed when the sun was elsewhere in the sky. As a ripple a pane of in glass is detected when objects seen through the glass are distorted, so we detect here a warping of space itself.http://www.aip.org/history/einstein/Page 17 of 93A Gravitational Lens...This photo taken with the Hubble Space Telescope shows a cluster of galaxies. Each of the bright rounded objects contains billions of stars. The huge concentrated mass of the cluster warps space around it, bending the light that comes through from galaxies lying far beyond the cluster. Each of the streaks and arcs in the photo is a smeared-out image of one of those distant galaxies.Measuring the streaks and applying Einstein's equations, physicists can calculate the distribution of matter in this cluster of galaxies. Astronomers are also using the cluster itself as a sort of telescope. This powerful &gravitational lens& gathers light from galaxies so remote that we could not see them by other means. Some of the light you see here originated when the universe was barely a quarter of its present age.http://www.aip.org/history/einstein/Page 18 of 93&Since that deluge of newspaper articles I have been so flooded with questions, invitations, suggestions, that I keep dreaming I am roasting in Hell, and the mailman is the devil eternally yelling at me, showering me with more bundles of letters at my head because I have not answered the old ones.&CartoonAnnouncement of the eclipse results caused a sensation, and not only among scientists. It brought home to the public a transformation of physics, by Einstein and others, that was overturning established views of time, space, matter, and energy. Einstein became the world's symbol of the new physics. Some journalists took a perverse delight in exaggerating the incomprehensibility of his theory, claiming that only a genius could understand it. More serious thinkers -philosophers, artists, ordinary educated and curious people -- took the trouble to study the new concepts. These people too chose Einstein as a symbol for thought at its highest.&I have become rather like King Midas, except that everything turns not into gold but into a circus.&http://www.aip.org/history/einstein/Page 19 of 93With his second wife, Elsa, Einstein toured the US in 1921 like a celebrity. His name and face became familiar even in cartoons and advertisements.http://www.aip.org/history/einstein/Page 20 of 93&The state exists for man, not man for the state. The same may be said of science. These are old phrases, coined by people who saw in human individuality the highest human value. I would hesitate to repeat them, were it not for the ever recurring danger that they may be forgotten, especially in these days of organization and stereotypes.&The outbreak of the First World War brought Einstein's pacifist sympathies into public view. Ninety-three leading German intellectuals, including physicists such as Planck, signed a manifesto defending Germany's war conduct. Einstein and three others signed an antiwar counter-manifesto. He helped to form a nonpartisan coalition that fought for a just peace and for a supranational organization to prevent future wars. As a Swiss citizen Einstein could feel free to spend his time on theoretical physics, but he kept looking for ways to reconcile the opposing sides. &My pacifism is an instinctive feeling,& he said, &a feeling that possesses me because the murder of men is disgusting. My attitude is not derived from any intellectual theory but is based on my deepest antipathy to every kind of cruelty and hatred.&Along with Germany's military collapse in November 1918, chaotic workers' and soldiers' councils proliferated. One of Einstein's lectures at the University of Berlin was &canceled due to revolution.& On November 16 Einstein was one of the original signers of a manifesto announcing the creation of a progressive middle-class party, the German Democratic Party. After a democratically elected assembly met in Weimar, Einstein formally accepted German citizenship as a gesture of support for the infant republic. The 1920 Kapp Putsch, an attempted coup by monarchists, was only one of many disturbances in Berlin.Einstein in Berlin with political figures. http://www.aip.org/history/einstein/Page 21 of 93With his scientific fame Einstein could act as unofficial spokesman for the Weimar Republic, and he protested the continued hostility of Germany's former enemies. In 1921 he refused to attend the third Solvay Congress in Belgium, since all other German scientists were excluded from it. In 1922 he joined a newly created Committee on Intellectual Cooperation set up under the League of Nations. The next year he resigned, distressed by the League's impotence when confronted with France's occupation of the German Ruhr. But he soon returned to the committee. As a leading member of the German League for Human Rights, he worked hard for better relations with France. He also made numerous gestures against militarism. Einstein attracted attention to a number of causes, such as the release of political prisoners and the defense of democracy against the spread of fascism. He spoke in public, made statements to the press, signed petitions. In 1924 he defended the radical Bauhaus School of A in 1927 he signed a protest against I in 1929 he appealed for the commutation of death sentences given to Arab rioters in British Palestine.While not a practicing Jew, Einstein took opportunities to show support for the German Jewish community when it was attacked by antiSemites.http://www.aip.org/history/einstein/Page 22 of 93Einstein traveled widely in the 1920s, both as a spokesman for liberal causes and as an esteemed member of the physics community. He visited England, France, Austria, Czechoslovakia, and South America and traveled east as far as Japan, returning by way of Palestine and Spain. In 1922 he went to Sweden to accept a Nobel Prize in physics. Between 1930 and 1933 he spent each winter in Pasadena at the California Institute of Technology, each spring in Berlin, and each summer near Berlin in a home at Caputh. Einstein visiting the Physics Institute in Leiden, The Netherlands. &How I wish that somewhere there existed an island for those who are wise and of goodwill! In such a place even I would be an ardent patriot.& Anti-Semitism was openly pursued by the powerful political right and the emerging Nazi party since 1919. Nazi physicists and their followers violently denounced Einstein's theory of relativity as &Jewish-Communist physics.& At times his friends feared for his safety. Such anti-Semitism was one reason why Einstein, although he believed in world government rather than nationalism, gave public support to Zionism. &In so far as a particular community is attacked as such,& he said, &it is bound to defend itself as such, so that its individual members may be able to maintain their material and spiritual interests... In present circumstances the rebuilding of Palestine is the only object that has a sufficiently strong appeal to stimulate the Jews to effective corporate action.& But he objected to a law that required him to join the official Jewish religious community in Berlin. He said, &Much as I feel myself a Jew, I feel far removed from traditional religious forms.&The &Einstein Tower& in Germany.An anti-Semitic cartoon from 1932. http://www.aip.org/history/einstein/Page 23 of 93As the Nazi movement grew stronger, Einstein helped to organize a non-partisan group, within the Jewish community, that advocated a united stand against fascism. Hitler's climb to power, bringing official support of vicious anti-Semitism, was making the position of Jews and other opponents of Nazism impossible. After Einstein left Germany in 1932 he never returned. In March 1933 he once again renounced German citizenship. His remaining property in Germany was confiscated, and his name appeared on the first Nazi list of people stripped of their citizenship. Many universities abroad were eager to invite the renowned scientist, but he had already accepted an offer to join the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. He arrived in the United States in October 1933, and in 1940 became an American citizen. In 1936 his wife Elsa died. One of her daughters and Einstein's long-time secretary lived on with Einstein in Princeton and helped with housekeeping.Einstein just before he left his homelandEinstein Speaks on the Fate of the European Jews…&As long as Nazi violence was unleashed only, or mainly, against the Jews, the rest of the world looked on passively and even treaties and agreements were made with the patently criminal government of the Third Reich.... The doors of Palestine were closed to Jewish immigrants, and no country could be found that would admit those forsaken people. They were left to perish like their brothers and sisters in the occupied countries. We shall never forget the heroic efforts of the small countries, of the Scandinavian, the Dutch, the Swiss nations, and of individuals in the occupied part of Europe who did all in their power to protect Jewish lives.&http://www.aip.org/history/einstein/Page 24 of 93During a stay in England in September 1933, Einstein met with Winston Churchill, Lloyd George, and prominent British scientists and intellectuals. He tried to warn them of the Nazi danger. Many noted academics were fleeing Germany, few of them received abroad as warmly as Einstein. He worked on behalf of the Emergency Committee to Aid Displaced German Scholars and other organizations that tried to find homes for both Jewish and political refugees. In London, 1933.A Sample of Einstein's Public Activities:
With Stefan Zweig, Bertrand Russell, and others, signs petition favoring the Kellogg-Briand arms limitation pact. Appeals against conscription and military t signs petition with Thomas Mann, Romain Rolland, and others. Speaks at the New History Society, New York, translated by the pacifist Rosika Schwimmer. Attends special screening in Hollywood of &All Quiet on the Western Front,& a film banned in G supports the German League for Human Rights campaign to have the film shown in Germany. Speaks at the California Institute of Technology on the social role of science. Addresses a peace group at Chicago railway station. Joins an international protest to save lives of eight Scottsboro, Alabama blacks wrongly convicted of rape. Speaks at a mass protest meeting supporting E.J. Grumbel, a liberal professor under attack in Germany. Supports the International Union of Anti-militarist Clergymen and Ministers, who call for a Geneva peace conference. Speaks at a student meeting of League of The Nations Association. Meets with War Resisters I sends message to their conference in France. Attends meeting of the Los Angeles University of International Relations. Speaks to the Joint Peace Council, with Lord Ponsonby, on the failure of disarmament conferences. Exchanges letters with Freud under auspices of International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation, leading to publication of pamphlet, &Why War?&
http://www.aip.org/history/einstein/Page 25 of 93
Addresses student group at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Resigns from the Prussian and Bavarian Academies of Science in protest after H in open letter, he denies the accusation that he spread propaganda on anti-Semitic atrocities. Accepts election as a Founding Member, with Lord Davies, of the New Commonwealth S discusses international army and navy police force. Speaks at a mass meeting in London for the Refugee Assistance Fund to aid victims of the Nazis. Guest of honor at the World Peaceways dinner in New York. Speaks at a Princeton, New Jersey state conference on Causes and Cures of War. Sends letter to the Anti-War Committee at New York University. Makes national radio speech on Brotherhood Day, sponsored by National Conference of Christians and Jews. Sends message to the Educators and World Peace conference of the Progressive Education Association in New York. With Alfred E. Smith, speaks on national radio and at a New York dinner to aid political and non-Jewish refugees from Germany. Helps to initiate campaign for a Nobel Peace Prize for the pacifist Carl von Ossietzky, then ill in a German concentration camp. With John Dewey and Alvin Johnson, becomes member of the United States section of the International League for Academic Freedom. Speaks at Passover celebration in at the Manhattan Opera House, urging JewishArab amity in Palestine.
http://www.aip.org/history/einstein/Page 26 of 93&Of all the communities available to us there is not one I would want to devote myself to, except for the society of the true searchers, which has very few living members at any time.&
Max Planck found the first hints of the quantum theory in 1900. H.A. Lorentz: &He meant more than all the others I have met on life's journey.& Erwin Schrdinger and Louis de Broglie developed a quantum theory that appealed to Einstein. He said de Broglie had &lifted a corner of the great veil.& But it was soon found that this theory was mathematically equivalent to the Heisenberg theory, which Einstein distrusted. Max Born, another pioneer of the quantum theory, was a friend of Einstein for many years.http://www.aip.org/history/einstein/Page 27 of 93In 1916 Einstein devised an improved fundamental statistical theory of heat, embracing the quantum of energy. His theory predicted that as light passed through a substance it could stimulate the emission of more light. This effect is at the heart of the modern laser. This theory was further developed by the Indian physicist S.N. Bose. He sent a draft paper to Einstein, who was inspired to develop a still more general approach. The terms stimulation and cooperative phenomena, used in laser physics, could describe the discovery process as well.LASER: Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation.By the 1920s most physicists had realized that their familiar mechanics, developed over centuries by Newton and many others, could not fully describe the world of atoms. Physics had to be rebuilt to take into account the fundamental discreteness of energy that was first pointed out by Planck and Einstein. Einstein himself contributed a number of key ideas to the developing quantum theory. But through the early 1920s much in quantum theory remained obscure.The Danish physicist Niels Bohr showed in 1913 how the quantum idea could explain the actions of electrons inside atoms. Beginning in 1925 a bold new quantum theory emerged, the creation of a whole generation of theoretical physicists from many nations. Soon scientists were vigorously debating how to interpret the new quantum mechanics. Einstein took an active part in these discussions. Heisenberg, Bohr, and other creators of the theory insisted that it left no meaningful way open to discuss certain details of an atom's behavior. For example, one could never predict the precise moment when an atom would emit a quantum of light. Einstein could not accept th and he raised one objection after another. At the Solvay Conferences of 1927 and 1930 the debate between Bohr and Einstein went on day and night, neither man conceding defeat. http://www.aip.org/history/einstein/Page 28 of 93The German physicist Werner Heisenberg. His 1925 quantum equations opened the way to a complete description of atomic mechanics. See our big online exhibit Werner Heisenberg and the Uncertainty Principle. &Quantum mechanics is certainly imposing. But an inner voice tells me that it is not yet the real thing. The theory says a lot, but does not really bring us closer to the secret of the 'Old One.' I, at any rate, am convinced that He is not playing at dice.& By the mid 1930s, Einstein had accepted quantum mechanics as a consistent theory for the statistics of the behavior of atoms. He recognized that it was &the most successful physical theory of our time.& This theory, which he had helped to create, could explain nearly all the physical phenomena of the everyday world. Eventually the applications would include transistors, lasers, a new chemistry, and more. Yet Einstein could not accept quantum mechanics as a completed theory, for its mathematics did not describe individual events. Einstein felt that a more basic theory, one that could completely describe how each individual atom behaved, might yet be found. By following the approach of his own general theory of relativity, he hoped to dig deeper than quantum mechanics. The search for a deeper theory was to occupy much of the rest of his life.Einstein and Bohrhttp://www.aip.org/history/einstein/Page 29 of 93You're Looking at Quanta...Streams of electrons shoot at your monitor's screen from behind, and where an electron hits, it kicks out a packet of light energy. Energy is exchanged in fixed discrete quantities, Einstein's &quanta.& So a particular screen material, hit by an electron, releases a light packet with a specific amount of energy. In the retina of your eye there are molecules in which the links between atoms are under tension, like tiny mousetraps that can be set off by a specific energy. (Different energies will appear to you as different colors, red or blue or green.) When a light packet of the right energy strikes a molecule of the right type, it may trigger the molecule to straighten out. This snap launches reactions that send a signal up a nerve to your brain. But the molecule is not always triggered. Sometimes the light just goes on through, without transferring its quantum of energy. Bohr held that it is a matter of pure chance whether the interaction will happen in any particular case. What can be calculated is the probability that the energy will be exchanged--say, seven out of ten times that a light packet meets a molecule of a given type. If your eyes were more sensitive, at very low levels of light you would see, instead of a constant image, a sparkling, &grainy& picture made up of random flashes. Is nature truly random at its foundations? Recent experiments at extremely low light levels have found examples of the strange behavior that Bohr's interpretation predicts. Einstein lost the debate... But Bohr has not won it. Physicists today continue to debate how to explain the intractably weird laws of quanta.http://www.aip.org/history/einstein/Page 30 of 93&I believe in Spinoza's God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with the fates and actions of human beings.&The general theory of relativity, unlike quantum theory, was not rapidly developed after Einstein showed the way. Gravity was now understood in a new way, but the equations were difficult to work with. And the characteristics of the theory showed up clearly only under extreme conditions, enormous densities or vast spaces or measurements of the highest precision. Eventually technology caught up -- the modern Global Positioning System cannot pin down a location without using the equations of general relativity to adjust for effects of gravity and speed. And astronomers have discovered black holes, objects with so much mass that they cannot be understood at all without Einstein's equations. But during Einstein's lifetime only one such object was known: the universe taken as a whole.galaxyIn 1917 Einstein and the Dutch astronomer Willem de Sitter showed that Einstein's equations could be used to describe a highly simplified universe. Other scientists developed this model, adapting it to the real universe full of stars. They found a difficulty: the model had to show the stars either all moving apart, as if from a giant explosion, or all collapsing together upon each other. But Einstein had found room in his equations for an extra mathematical term, the &cosmological term& as he called it. He could adjust this term to give a new model: an unchanging model universe. Einstein with de Sitter. In 1929 the American astronomer Edwin Hubble discovered evidence that distant galaxies of stars are moving away from our galaxy, and away from each other, as if the entire universe were expanding. The original Einstein equations might give an exact description of our universe after all. Quickly convinced by Hubble's evidence, Einstein felt that his notion of a &cosmological term& was a mistake. Other scientists withheld judgment, and debate over the cosmological term still continues today. But most astronomers agree that with or without the cosmological term, Einstein's equations give the best available language for a description of the overall structure of the universe. Hubble at his telescope. http://www.aip.org/history/einstein/Page 31 of 93&I want to know how God created this world. I am not interested in this or that phenomenon, in the spectrum of this or that element. I want to know H the rest are details.&A Black Hole...You can't see a black hole itself. Einstein's equations show that where mass is concentrated to an extreme, space closes in upon itself until not even light can escape the gravitational pull. But you can see matter glowing with heat as it falls in. This picture taken by the Hubble Space Telescope shows a whirlpool of hot gas orbiting an astonishing object in the middle of the distant galaxy M87.Measurements of the gas velocities show that the object must be as massive as three billion suns, all concentrated in a volume no larger than our solar system. Astronomers were pointed to the object by a long jet of gas (upper right), somehow spurted out by the knot of fierce energies generated as other matter falls into the black hole.Courtesy NASAhttp://www.aip.org/history/einstein/Page 32 of 93&I am happy because I want nothing from anyone. I do not care for money. Decorations, titles, or distinctions mean nothing to me. I do not crave praise. The only thing that gives me pleasure, apart from my work, my violin, and my sailboat, is the appreciation of my fellow workers.& http://www.aip.org/history/einstein/Page 33 of 93&Concern for man himself must always constitute the chief objective of all technological effort -- concern for the big, unsolved problems of how to organize human work and the distribution of commodities in such a manner as to assure that the results of our scientific thinking may be a blessing to mankind, and not a curse.&http://www.aip.org/history/einstein/Page 34 of 93Scientists in the 1930s, using machines that could break apart the nuclear cores of atoms, confirmed Einstein's formula E=mc2. The release of energy in a nuclear transformation was so great that it could cause a detectable change in the mass of the nucleus. But the study of nuclei -- in those years the fastest growing area of physics -- had scant effect on Einstein. Nuclear physicists were gathering into ever-larger teams of scientists and technicians, heavily funded by governments and foundations, engaged in experiments using massive devices. Such work was alien to Einstein's habit of abstract thought, done alone or with a mathematical assistant. In return, experimental nuclear physicists in the 1930s had little need for Einstein's theories. Einstein's letter to FDR regarding the possibility of the creation of a nuclear bomb In August 1939 nuclear physicists came to Einstein, not for scientific but for political help. The fission of the uranium nucleus had recently been discovered. A long-time friend, Leo Szilard, and other physicists realized that uranium might be used for enormously devastating bombs. They had reason to fear that Nazi Germany might construct such weapons. Einstein, reacting to the danger from Hitler's aggression, had already abandoned his strict pacifism. He now signed a letter that was delivered to the American president, Franklin D. Roosevelt, warning him to take action. This letter, and a second Einstein-Szilard letter of March 1940, joined efforts by other scientists to prod the United States government into preparing for nuclear warfare. Einstein played no other role in the nuclear bomb project. As a German who had supported leftwing causes, he was denied security clearance for such sensitive work. But during the war he did perform useful service as a consultant for the United States Navy&