So you think you know Albert Einstein: the absent-minded genius who
gave us the theory of relativity (two of them, in fact, special theory
and general theory of relativity), but did you know that Einstein was
born with such a large head that his mother thought he was deformed? Or
that Einstein had a secret child before he was married?
Read on for more obscure facts about the life of the world’s smartest genius and find at the end 10 tips from the genius himself on how to be more successful in life:
1. Einstein Was a Fat Baby with Large Head
When
Albert’s mother, Pauline Einstein gave birth to him, she thought that
Einstein's head was so big and misshapen that he was deformed!
As
the back of the head seemed much too big, the family initially
considered a monstrosity. The physician, however, was able to calm them
down and some weeks later the shape of the head was normal. When
Albert's grandmother saw him for the first time she is reported to have
muttered continuously "Much too fat, much too fat!" Contrasting all
apprehensions Albert grew and developed normally except that he seemed a
bit slow.
2. Einstein Had Speech Difficulty as a Child
Earliest Known Photo of Albert Einstein (Image credit: Albert Einstein Archives,
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel)
As
a child, Einstein seldom spoke. When he did, he spoke very slowly -
indeed, he tried out entire sentences in his head (or muttered them
under his breath) until he got them right before he spoke aloud.
According to accounts, Einstein did this until he was nine years old.
Einstein's parents were fearful that he was retarded - of course, their
fear was completely unfounded!
One interesting anecdote, told by Otto Neugebauer, a historian of science, goes like this:
As
he was a late talker, his parents were worried. At last, at the supper
table one night, he broke his silence to say, "The soup is too hot."
Greatly relieved, his parents asked why he had never said a word before.
Albert replied, "Because up to now everything was in order."
In his book, Thomas Sowell noted that besides Einstein, many brilliant people developed
speech relatively late in childhood. He called this condition The
Einstein Syndrome.
3. Einstein was Inspired by a Compass
When
Einstein was five years old and sick in bed, his father showed him
something that sparked his interest in science: a compass.
When
Einstein was five years old and ill in bed one day, his father showed
him a simple pocket compass. What interested young Einstein was
whichever the case was turned, the needle always pointed in the same
direction. He thought there must be some force in what was presumed
empty space that acted on the compass. This incident, common in many
"famous childhoods," was reported persistently in many of the accounts
of his life once he gained fame.
4. Einstein Failed his University Entrance Exam
In
1895, at the age of 17, Albert Einstein applied for early admission
into the Swiss Federal Polytechnical School (Eidgenössische Technische
Hochschule or ETH). He passed the math and science sections of the
entrance exam, but failed the rest (history, languages, geography,
etc.)! Einstein had to go to a trade school before he retook the exam
and was finally admitted to ETH a year later.
5. Einstein had an Illegitimate Child
In
the 1980s, Einstein's private letters revealed something new about the
genius: he had an illegitimate daughter with a fellow former student
Mileva Marić (whom Einstein later married).
In 1902, a year before
their marriage, Mileva gave birth to a daughter named Lieserl, whom
Einstein never saw and whose fate remained unknown:
Mileva
gave birth to a daughter at her parents’ home in Novi Sad. This was at
the end of January, 1902 when Einstein was in Berne. It can be assumed
from the content of the letters that birth was difficult. The girl was
probably christianised. Her official first name is unknown. In the
letters received only the name “Lieserl” can be found.
The
further life of Lieserl is even today not totally clear. Michele
Zackheim concludes in her book “Einstein’s daughter” that Lieserl was
mentally challenged when she was born and lived with Mileva’s family.
Furthermore she is convinced that Lieserl died as a result of an
infection with scarlet fever in September 1903. From the letters
mentioned above it can also be assumed that Lieserl was put up for
adoption after her birth.
In a letter from Einstein to
Mileva from September 19, 1903, Lieserl was mentioned for the last time.
After that nobody knows anything about Lieserl Einstein-Maric.
6. Einstein Became Estranged From His First Wife, then Proposed a Strange "Contract"
After
Einstein and Mileva married, they had two sons: Hans Albert and Eduard.
Einstein's academic successes and world travel, however, came at a
price - he became estranged from his wife. For a while, the couple tried
to work out their problems - Einstein even proposed a strange
"contract" for living together with Mileva:
The
relationship progressed. Einstein became estranged from his wife. The
biography reprints a chilling letter from Einstein to his wife, a
proposed "contract" in which they could continue to live together under
certain conditions. Indeed that was the heading: "Conditions."
A. You will make sure
1. that my clothes and laundry are kept in good order;
2. that I will receive my three meals regularly in my room;
3. that my bedroom and study are kept neat, and especially that my desk is left for my use only.
B. You will renounce all personal relations with me insofar as they are not completely necessary for social reasons...
There's
more, including "you will stop talking to me if I request it." She
accepted the conditions. He later wrote to her again to make sure she
grasped that this was going to be all-business in the future, and that
the "personal aspects must be reduced to a tiny remnant." And he vowed,
"In return, I assure you of proper comportment on my part, such as I
would exercise to any woman as a stranger."
7. Einstein Didn't Get Along with His Oldest Son
After
the divorce, Einstein's relationship with his oldest son, Hans Albert,
turned rocky. Hans blamed his father for leaving Mileva, and after
Einstein won the Nobel Prize and money, for giving Mileva access only to
the interest rather than the principal sum of the award - thus making
her life that much harder financially.
The row between the father and son was amplified when Einstein strongly objected to Hans Albert marrying Frieda Knecht:
In
fact, Einstein opposed Hans's bride in such a brutal way that it far
surpassed the scene that Einstein's own mother had made about Mileva. It
was 1927, and Hans, at age 23, fell in love with an older and - to
Einstein - unattractive woman. He damned the union, swearing that Hans's
bride was a scheming woman preying on his son. When all else failed,
Einstein begged Hans to not have children, as it would only make the
inevitable divorce harder. ... (Source: Einstein A to Z by Karen C. Fox and Aries Keck, 2004)
Later,
Hans Albert immigrated to the United States became a professor of
Hydraulic Engineering at UC Berkeley. Even in the new country, the
father and son were apart. When Einstein died, he left very little
inheritance to Hans Albert.
8. Einstein was a Ladies' Man
Einstein with his second wife and cousin, Elsa
After
Einstein divorced Mileva (his infidelity was listed as one of the
reasons for the split), he soon married his cousin Elsa Lowenthal.
Actually, Einstein also considered marrying Elsa's daughter (from her
first marriage) Ilse, but she demurred:
Before
marrying Elsa, he had considered marrying her daughter, Ilse, instead.
According to Overbye, “She (Ilse, who was 18 years younger than
Einstein) was not attracted to Albert, she loved him as a father, and
she had the good sense not to get involved. But it was Albert’s Woody
Allen moment.”
Unlike
Mileva, Elsa Einstein's main concern was to take care of her famous
husband. She undoubtedly knew about, and yet tolerated, Einstein's
infidelity and love affairs which were later revealed in his letters:
Previously
released letters suggested his marriage in 1903 to his first wife
Mileva Maric, mother of his two sons, was miserable. They divorced in
1919, and he soon married his cousin, Elsa. He cheated on her with his
secretary, Betty Neumann.
In the new volume of letters
released on Monday by Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Einstein described
about six women with whom he spent time and from whom he received gifts
while being married to Elsa.
Some of the women
identified by Einstein include Estella, Ethel, Toni and his "Russian spy
lover," Margarita. Others are referred to only by initials, like M. and
L.
"It is true that M. followed me (to England) and her
chasing after me is getting out of control," he wrote in a letter to
Margot in 1931. "Out of all the dames, I am in fact attached only to
Mrs. L., who is absolutely harmless and decent."
9. Einstein, the War Pacifist, Urged FDR to Build the Atom Bomb
Re-creation of Einstein and Szilárd signing the famous letter to President Franklin Roosevelt in 1939.
In 1939, alarmed by the rise of Nazi Germany, physicist Leó Szilárd convinced Einstein to write a letter to president Franklin
Delano Roosevelt warning that Nazi Germany might be conducting research
into developing an atomic bomb and urging the United States to develop
its own.
The Einstein and Szilárd's letter was often cited as one of the reasons Roosevelt started the secret Manhattan Project
[wiki] to develop the atom bomb, although later it was revealed that
the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941 probably did much more than the
letter to spur the government.
Although Einstein was a brilliant
physicist, the army considered Einstein a security risk and (to
Einstein's relief) did not invite him to help in the project.
10. The Saga of Einstein's Brain: Pickled in a Jar for 43 Years and Driven Cross Country in a Trunk of a Buick!
After his death in 1955, Einstein's brain was removed - without permission from his family - by Thomas Stoltz Harvey, the Princeton Hospital pathologist who conducted the autopsy.
Harvey took the brain home and kept it in a jar. He was later fired from
his job for refusing to relinquish the organ.
Many years later,
Harvey, who by then had gotten permission from Hans Albert to study
Einstein's brain, sent slices of Einstein's brain to various scientists
throughout the world. One of these scientists was Marian Diamond of UC
Berkeley, who discovered that compared to a normal person, Einstein had
significantly more glial cells in the region of the brain that is
responsible for synthesizing information.
In another study, Sandra
Witelson of McMaster University found that Einstein's brain lacked a
particular "wrinkle" in the brain called the Sylvian fissure. Witelson
speculated that this unusual anatomy allowed neurons in Einstein's brain
to communicate better with each other. Other studies had suggested that
Einstein's brain was denser, and that the inferior parietal lobe, which
is often associated with mathematical ability, was larger than normal
brains.
The saga of Einsteins brain can be quite strange at times:
in the early 1990s, Harvey went with freelance writer Michael Paterniti
on a cross-country trip to California to meet Einstein's granddaughter.
They drove off from New Jersey in Harvey's Buick Skylark with
Einstein's brain sloshing inside a jar in the trunk! Paterniti later
wrote his experience in the book Driving Mr. Albert: A Trip Across America with Einstein's Brain
In
1998, the 85-year-old Harvey delivered Einstein's brain to Dr. Elliot
Krauss, the staff pathologist at Princeton University, the position
Harvey once held:
... after safeguarding the brain
for decades like it was a holy relic -- and, to many, it was -- he
simply, quietly, gave it away to the pathology department at the nearby
University Medical Center at Princeton, the university and town where
Einstein spent his last two decades.
"Eventually, you get
tired of the responsibility of having it. ... I did about a year ago,"
Harvey said, slowly. "I turned the whole thing over last year [in
1998]."
(source: neatorama.com)
10 tips to success
1. Follow Your Curiosity
“I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.”
2. Perseverance is Priceless
“It’s not that I’m so smart; it’s just that I stay with problems longer.”
3. Focus on the Present
“Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves.”
4. The Imagination is Powerful
“Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions. Imagination is more important than knowledge.”
5. Make Mistakes
“A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.”
6. Live in the Moment
“I never think of the future – it comes soon enough.”
7. Create Value
“Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.”
8. Don’t be repetitive
“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
9. Knowledge Comes From Experience
“Information is not knowledge. The only source of knowledge is experience.”
10. Learn the Rules and Then Play Better
“You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else.”
Well than, I 'd like to leave you with some inspiration I got recently and as a matter of facts, it has nothing to do with changing years, but very much with changing lifes. 
