PORTRAIT

Albert Einstein: an extraordinary character

Three portraits of Albert Einstein taken in Princeton, United States, in March 1953. © AP Photo

Text by: Nenad Tomic

7 mins

Albert Einstein (1879-1955) is considered one of the most outstanding scientists of the 20th century, in particular for his fundamental theory of relativity and the human conception of time, space and the universe.

In 1921, he was awarded the Nobel Prize.

It was given to him on December 10, 1922, just over a century ago.

But this extraordinary character continues to intrigue scientists and the general public.

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Between dyslexia and science

Albert Einstein was born on March 14, 1879 in Ulm, Germany.

From an early age, those close to him realize that the child has a problem: he does not speak.

He plays passionately with a compass, shows signs of extreme intelligence but finds it difficult to express himself.

The doctors conclude that he is dyslexic, autistic and that he will probably become mentally handicapped.

Even though young Albert hardly spoke until he was nine years old, we now know that the doctors were wrong.

At the age of 12, Albert discovered a geometry book and he adored it: he called it his “holy geometry book”.

When study time arrived, young Einstein was a good student and not a dunce, as some claimed.

He is particularly gifted in physics and mathematics, although he remains an average student in many

other subjects.

He hates the authoritarian attitude of some teachers and left school at the age of 16.

Then he takes an entrance exam to the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, but he fails due to his shortcomings in other subjects.

Eventually, Einstein was admitted to the École polytechnique in 1896, and in 1901 he received his diploma as a teacher of physics and mathematics.

To escape military service, Albert takes Swiss nationality.

Since the benches of the polytechnic school, he tied a romantic relationship with a Serbian scientist, Mileva Marić, and wishes to marry.

However, his parents are against this marriage, especially since he does not work.

Thanks to a friend, he obtained a position at the Swiss Federal Patent Office in Bern in 1902.

authoritarian attitude of some teachers and left school at the age of 16.

Then he takes an entrance exam to the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, but he fails due to his shortcomings in other subjects.

Eventually, Einstein was admitted to the École polytechnique in 1896, and in 1901 he received his diploma as a teacher of physics and mathematics.

To escape military service, Albert takes Swiss nationality.

Since the benches of the polytechnic school, he tied a romantic relationship with a Serbian scientist, Mileva Marić, and wishes to marry.

However, his parents are against this marriage, especially since he does not work.

Thanks to a friend, he obtained a position at the Swiss Federal Patent Office in Bern in 1902.

authoritarian attitude of some teachers and left school at the age of 16.

Then he takes an entrance exam to the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, but he fails due to his shortcomings in other subjects.

Eventually, Einstein was admitted to the École polytechnique in 1896, and in 1901 he received his diploma as a teacher of physics and mathematics.

To escape military service, Albert takes Swiss nationality.

Since the benches of the polytechnic school, he tied a romantic relationship with a Serbian scientist, Mileva Marić, and wishes to marry.

However, his parents are against this marriage, especially since he does not work.

Thanks to a friend, he obtained a position at the Swiss Federal Patent Office in Bern in 1902.

he passes an entrance exam to the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, but he fails because of his shortcomings in other subjects.

Eventually, Einstein was admitted to the École polytechnique in 1896, and in 1901 he received his diploma as a teacher of physics and mathematics.

To escape military service, Albert takes Swiss nationality.

Since the benches of the polytechnic school, he tied a romantic relationship with a Serbian scientist, Mileva Marić, and wishes to marry.

However, his parents are against this marriage, especially since he does not work.

Thanks to a friend, he obtained a position at the Swiss Federal Patent Office in Bern in 1902.

he passes an entrance exam to the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, but he fails because of his shortcomings in other subjects.

Eventually, Einstein was admitted to the École polytechnique in 1896, and in 1901 he received his diploma as a teacher of physics and mathematics.

To escape military service, Albert takes Swiss nationality.

Since the benches of the polytechnic school, he tied a romantic relationship with a Serbian scientist, Mileva Marić, and wishes to marry.

However, his parents are against this marriage, especially since he does not work.

Thanks to a friend, he obtained a position at the Swiss Federal Patent Office in Bern in 1902.

École polytechnique in 1896 and in 1901 he received his diploma as a teacher of physics and mathematics.

To escape military service, Albert takes Swiss nationality.

Since the benches of the polytechnic school, he tied a romantic relationship with a Serbian scientist, Mileva Marić, and wishes to marry.

However, his parents are against this marriage, especially since he does not work.

Thanks to a friend, he obtained a position at the Swiss Federal Patent Office in Bern in 1902.

École polytechnique in 1896 and in 1901 he received his diploma as a teacher of physics and mathematics.

To escape military service, Albert takes Swiss nationality.

Since the benches of the polytechnic school, he tied a romantic relationship with a Serbian scientist, Mileva Marić, and wishes to marry.

However, his parents are against this marriage, especially since he does not work.

Thanks to a friend, he obtained a position at the Swiss Federal Patent Office in Bern in 1902.

especially since he doesn't work.

Thanks to a friend, he obtained a position at the Swiss Federal Patent Office in Bern in 1902.

especially since he doesn't work.

Thanks to a friend, he obtained a position at the Swiss Federal Patent Office in Bern in 1902.

Major theories and the Nobel Prize

In 1903, Einstein married Mileva Marić.

At the same time, he continues to take an interest in scientific publications and notes his own reflections.

In 1905, he obtained his doctorate at the University of Zurich for a theoretical thesis on the dimensions of molecules.

Then with his wife, they settled in Bern where they founded a discussion club with the scientists Conrad Habicht and Maurice Solovine.

In 1905, Einstein published his research on the foundations of special relativity and the hypotheses on the new quantum physics opening the way to nuclear research.

Then, he poses the principle of equivalence between the field of gravitation and acceleration and introduces the concept of space-time (four-dimensional space).

In 1916,

he publishes the theory of gravitation also known as the theory of general relativity.

It explains variations in the orbital motion of certain planets and predicts the curvature of starlight near a massive body like the Sun.

Three years later, in 1919, he confirmed his theory based on the experience produced during the solar eclipse.

This last phenomenon was confirmed experimentally during a solar eclipse in 1919. Einstein was then propelled onto the international scientific scene.

In December 1922, he received the Nobel Prize for the year 1921 which had not been awarded.

But it is for his explanation of the "photoelectric" effect (the emission of electrons by a material subjected to the action of light) that he receives this prestigious award and not for his theory of relativity. .

Indeed, the scientists of the time reproached him for not having enough proof by experimentation and that the theoretical part of relativity seems impossible to demonstrate to win the Nobel Prize.

It was only half a century later that Einstein's theory and his famous formula E=mc² were measured and verified, thanks in particular to atomic clocks.

The role of Mileva Maric

Born in Serbia (Austria-Hungary at the time) on December 19, 1875, Mileva Marić has a real gift for science.

In 1892, his father managed to enroll him in the royal school in Zagreb, reserved for boys.

Mileva took physics and mathematics courses, then continued her studies at the Polytechnic Institute in Zurich.

She is the only female student and then meets Albert Einstein.

They work together most of the time.

In December 1900, Einstein published a study on capillarity, which he probably wrote with Mileva Marić.

For Radmila Milentijević, author of the biography

(Éditions L'Age d'Homme, 2014), the young scientist certainly wanted to help her companion to make a name for himself.

In 1901, Mileva Marić became pregnant.

Albert does not work and cannot marry her for this reason.

Mileva leaves for her parents in Novi Sad in Serbia where she will give birth to their little girl, Liserl, in January 1902. Their daughter is mentioned in the letters they exchange, but no one knows what has become of their first child.

According to historians, the little girl was either given up for adoption or died of scarlet fever.

Albert and Mileva finally married on January 6, 1903. A year later, they had a son, Hans Albert, and in 1910, their third child, Eduard, was born.

But, in 1912, Einstein began an affair with his own cousin, Elsa Löwenthal and divorced Mileva in 1914. During the divorce proceedings,

they sign a contract which stipulates that “if Albert Einstein obtains a Nobel Prize, the money received will go to Mileva Marić for the education of their children”.

This money is mainly used to treat their youngest son who is sick with schizophrenia.

The role of Mileva Marić is still debated.

The letters that she and Albert Einstein sent to each other, and the testimonies gathered by certain biographers, tend to show that she did indeed help the famous scientist.

She took part in the reflection on the first theories of her husband then also helped him to publish the first articles.

But no one is able to prove his contribution to the work with Einstein.

This money is mainly used to treat their youngest son who is sick with schizophrenia.

The role of Mileva Marić is still debated.

The letters that she and Albert Einstein sent to each other, and the testimonies collected by certain biographers, tend to show that she actually helped the famous scientist.

She took part in the reflection on the first theories of her husband then also helped him to publish the first articles.

But no one is able to prove his contribution to the work with Einstein.

This money is mainly used to treat their youngest son who is sick with schizophrenia.

The role of Mileva Marić is still debated.

The letters that she and Albert Einstein sent to each other, and the testimonies collected by certain biographers, tend to show that she actually helped the famous scientist.

She took part in the reflection on the first theories of her husband then also helped him to publish the first articles.

But no one is able to prove his contribution to the work with Einstein.

She took part in the reflection on the first theories of her husband then also helped him to publish the first articles.

But no one is able to prove his contribution to the work with Einstein.

She took part in the reflection on the first theories of her husband then also helped him to publish the first articles.

But no one is able to prove his contribution to the work with Einstein.

A quirky scholar

• Albert Einstein always stressed the need for vegetarianism.

In fact, he ate meat for most of his life, but towards the end of his life Einstein became a vegetarian.

• Nazism settles in Germany and Einstein goes into exile in the United States in 1933. He becomes friends with militants against racism, he helps immigrants to flee Europe and even asks for a pardon from the communist couple Rosenberg.

The American authorities and President Hoover suspect him of being a communist himself and begin to monitor him very closely.

Albert Einstein is considered "the enemy of the state".

FBI agents constantly spy on him: his mail, his calls and even his trash can!

• He hated socks!

He usually walked around barefoot.

And he also put on his shoes without socks.

• Everyone knows the character of Master Yoda from the

but few people know that the creation of the green-colored Jedi was inspired by Einstein's face.

• Israeli Prime Minister David Ben Gurion asks the famous scientist to take over the presidency of the State of Israel in November 1952. The latter declines the proposal and replies: " 

 Einstein died on April 18, 1955 of a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm.

According to his last wishes, he will be cremated and his ashes are scattered in an undisclosed location.

But before that, during the autopsy, the medical examiner takes his brain and his eyes.

A 2013 study of his brain reveals a hyper-connection between the two hemispheres.

According to some specialists, this is probably the explanation for the great intelligence of this genius of the 20th century.

To listen :

→ Who was Albert Einstein?

→ How to tell Einstein?

→ Why the mysteries of time, from Galileo to Einstein?

To read :

→ Gravitational waves predicted by Einstein finally discovered?

→ A manuscript of Albert Einstein breaks records at auction

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