Theory of Relativity
Albert Einstein
His theory of general relativity
brought a revolution in physics. His law of the photoelectric effect was pivotal
in establishing the quantum theory within physics. No wonder that Albert Einstein,
winner of Nobel Prize in Physics (1921), is regarded as the father of modern physics.
Biography of Albert Einstein, history is interesting
and worth reading. He was born in Ulm in southwest Germany on 14 March 1879. He
studied at the Institute of Technology in Zurich and received his doctorate in 1905
from the University of Zurich. In the same year he published four groundbreaking
scientific papers. One introduced his special theory of relativity
and other one had equation 'E = mc²' which related mass and energy.
Within a short time Einstein's work was recognised as original and important. In
1909, he became associate professor of theoretical physics at Zurich, in 1911 professor
of theoretical physics at the German University in Prague and then returned to the
Institute of Technology in Zurich the following year. In 1914, he was appointed
director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics in Berlin. He became a German
citizen in the same year. In 1916 he published his theory of general relativity.
During the 1920's Einstein lectured in Europe, North and South America and Palestine,
where he was involved in the establishment of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Albert Einstein history states that he was born
into a Jewish family and a supporter of pacifism and Zionism, Einstein increasingly
became the focus of hostile Nazi propaganda. In 1933, the year the Nazis took power
in Germany, Einstein immigrated to the US. He accepted a position at the Institute
of Advanced Study in Princeton and took US citizenship. Einstein retired from the
institute in 1945 but worked for the rest of his life towards a unified field theory
to establish a merger between quantum theory and his general
theory of relativity. He continued to be active in the peace movement
and in support of Zionist causes and in 1952 he was offered the presidency of Israel,
which he declined.
Albert Einstein is one of the most celebrated
scientists in history. His work helped bring a new era of discovery and knowledge
to the area of physics. Einstein published more than 300 scientific papers along
with over 150 non-scientific works. His intelligence and originality have made the
word ‘Einstein’ synonymous with genius. His varied work in Physics touched a range
of subjects like production and transformation of light, the motion of small particles
suspended in a stationary liquid, electrodynamics of moving bodies, matter–energy
equivalence, thermodynamic fluctuations and statistical physics. He was not only
a scientist, but also a social activist and a humanitarian. His thoughts on god,
religion, politics, democracy and other topics have enlightened intellectuals and
commoners across the world.
On the eve of World War II, he helped alert President Franklin D. Roosevelt that
Germany might be developing an atomic weapon and recommended that the U.S. begin
similar research. Later, together with Bertrand Russell, Einstein signed the Russell–Einstein
Manifesto, which highlighted the danger of nuclear weapons.
By 1949 Einstein was in failing health. He died in April of 1955 in Princeton, New
Jersey. He was cremated and his ashes were spread at an undisclosed location. During
the autopsy, the pathologist of Princeton Hospital, Thomas Stoltz Harvey, removed
Einstein's brain for preservation, without the permission of his family, in hope
that the neuroscience of the future would be able to discover what made Einstein
so intelligent! This is short summary of Biography of Albert
Einstein
