Albert Einstein’s name has become synonymous with words such as, “genius,” and “intelligent,” but not many people know what achievements earned Einstein those prestigious labels. This brief paper will provide the reader with a background history on Einstein and his achievements, so that we can better understand why he is still regarded today as one of the most intelligent people that have ever lived.
Einstein was born in Wurttemberg Germany, on March 14, 1879 (Nobel Media AB, 2014). His family moved around quite a bit, moving from Germany to Italy, and then finally to Zurich, Switzerland. In Zurich, he began his studies to become a physics and mathematics teacher at the Federal Polytechnic School. Although he earned his degree and gained Swiss citizenship in 1901, he was unable to secure a job, so he eventually accepted a position as a technical assistant at the Swiss patent office. He later became a German citizen and remained working there until 1933, when he renounced his citizenship due to political reasons. Throughout his life, Einstein held many prestigious positions at universities, such as the Director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Physical Institute in Berlin and Professor of Theoretical Physics at Princeton. He was awarded numerous fellowships and membership all around the world, including the Franklin Medal from the Franklin Institute in 1935. He later became a United States citizen in 1940 and retired from Princeton in 1945. Einstein also has a daughter and two sons from his first marriage to Mileva Maric, which ended in divorce in 1919. The same year, he married his cousin Elsa Lowenthal, who died in 1936 and with whom he did not have any children.
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"Albert Einstein: Nobel Prize Winner and Genius".
Einstein was said to have rewritten the laws of nature and “changed the way we understand the behavior of thing as basic as light, gravity, and time” (Famous Scientists, 2015). He actually had so many achievements and innovations, entire books have been written on the subject; therefore, this paper will highlight the most important works. One of Einstein’s earliest published works dealt with his analysis of Brownian Motion, where he provided confirmation for the existence of atoms and molecules. He also demonstrated the photoelectric effect, where he was able to prove that light can act both as a particle and a wave. He called light particles quanta, which he stated could eject electrons from metals given the right amount of energy. Einstein was also able to show that light travels at the speed of 300 million meters per second in a vacuum. This discovery also proved that people that are traveling at higher speeds experience time passing more slowly than people moving at slower speeds. One of Einstein’s most well known accomplishments was his equation: E = mc2, which states that energy is equal to mass multiplied by the speed of light squared. This means, “a small amount of mass could make a large amount of energy.” In 1916, Einstein published his most famous work, The General Theory of Relativity, which was proven by scientific observations years later. The theory has three basic parts: 1) Matter caused space to curve, which is what produced gravity; 2) The path of light follows the gravitational curve of space; and 3) Time passes at a slower pace when gravity is strong.
Most people are in agreement that Einstein was a genius, but scientists always wondered what made him such a genius. Was there something about Einstein’s brain that was so different from the “average” person? Several studies have tried to answer this question and have come up with several conclusions in support of this idea. According to the article, “Why Einstein was a Genius,” Michael Bater (2012) references several studies that have found difference/anomalies in Einstein’s brain.
After he died in 1955, his son donated his father’s brain to research. For example, one study found that Einstein’s parietal lobes (which is involved in integrating sensory input with the visual system) had “a very unusual pattern of groves and ridges.” They speculated that this might have contributed to his remarkable ability to conceptualize physics problems. They also found that the left side of the brain (involved in sensory input into and in control of mouth and tongue) and his prefrontal cortex (involved in planning, perseverance in the face of challenges, and focused attention) were both larger than normal. Despite these findings, environmental factors (e.g., having very nurturing parents that encouraged creativity and independence) also contributed to the makings of one of the greatest minds of all time.
- Balter, M. (2012). “Why Einstein was a genius. American Association for the Advancement of
Science. Retrieved from http://news.sciencemag.org/2012/11/why-einstein-was-genius - Famous Scientists. (2015). Albert Einstein. Retrieved from
http://www.famousscientists.org/albert-einstein/ - Nobel Media AB. (2014). Albert Einstein-Biographical. Retrieved from
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1921/einstein-bio.html
