THE AMBASSADORS
Summer Issue
MEGASTAR

Volume 2, Issue 3
July 1999

The Complete Albert Einstein

The story of a distinguished astrophysicist,
Noble prizer and human being

Dr. T. I. Farag FRCP (Edin), FACP

Although in recent years, more than 400 books about Albert Einstein (AE) and his work have appeared, they tell only part of the truth. His private life can be found in the tens of thousands of papers in the archives. In 1996, John-Wiley publishers, released a book by Denis Brian entitled, "Einstein: a life" comprehensively chronicling most of the published data about the 20^th century's most distinguished astrophysicist and the controversies, puzzles and that plagued his mysteries. The author mentioned,

[He was loved and hated to excess. One admirer called him the greatest Jew since Jesus, and another the greatest since Moses. Some even spoke of him as a "Jewish saint". Critics damned as a self-promoting fraud who stole others' ideas. Others saw him as a humanitarian in the same league as Mahatma Ghandi and Albert Schweitzer, yet Einstein's liberal views, and his support of world government and of left-wing causes, made both the Nazi authorities and FBI suspect him as an enemy of the state. Two wives testfied to his failure as a husband, and some believed he was a misogynist - though certainly not his adoring friend, Dorothy Commins, who recalled how, gazing into his eyes, she had thought, "Here is the noblest of creatures."]

Considered by many to be a phenome genious, AE, was described variably by historians, often from one end of the spectrum to the other. Some of such descriptions portrayed him as the greatest mind of any living man, anti-facist, anti-Nazi, liberal, socialist, communist, Zionist, outmoded heretic, proponent for peace, pacific, stubborn, cookoo, super-Santa Claus and a dreamer for pro-world federalism!!

Who is Einstein?

Perhaps one of the most famous people to have had an unpromising school experience, it surprised many that his abilities were not recognized until adulthood. His parents were worried since his birth in Germany on March 1879 with a misshapen head. He still lagged fluency of speech when he was eight, was quiet, introverted and hated learning classical languages. At the age of nine, he was regarded by classmates as an amiable dreamer who never kicked a ball! His teachers' reports said that the boy was mentally slow, unsociable and adrift in foolish dreams. He sat through his language and history lessons without learning anything. After two years in elementary school, he showed a talent both for math and Latin, yet hopeless in everything else.

He was good at literature and arithmetics because he found them interesting. His father called him, "Herr Languill", Mr.Dullard. Nevertheless, he had mastered Euclid, Newton, Spinosa and Descartes before he was fifteen. He was suspended from school one day, and his father was notified by the teachers that the presence of Albert in the class was having a disruptive effect on other students and that his son was wasting everyone's time. Another teacher wrote a note saying that Albert was so proficient at math, there was little more he could teach him. The 12-year-old boy became an addict to violin and piano enjoying Mozart and Beethoven's symphonies and visiting galleries and museums. At 16, Albert failed in the entrance exam to the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School at Zurich, inspite of his unusual talents and excellence in maths, though he proved that he was talented, but not in the subject in the curriculum. He tried again later and was successful obtaining a teacher's certificate which only provided him a humble clerical job in the Potent Office in Berne! One day he ended arguements with his friends by playing a violin solo and quip, saying he could earn more as a street musician than at the potent office. One of his friends agreed and offered, if he ever made the career change, to join him on the guitar! His father was unhappy that his son had not accopmplished what he had wished for him, which was to become an electrical engineer.

Einstein: The Man and the Theory

In early adulthood, he discovered his love to maths, physics, philosophy, music and literature. He enjoyed listening to Hayden, Mozart, Beethoven's music and reading about the Greek philosopher, Democritus, and Dostoyevesky's book, :The Brothers Karmazov". Captivated by physics, he was interested to rank himself with Galilleo and Newton since he was convinced that with physics he could go intuitively to the heart of the matter and see what needed to be done. His love for both math and physics encouraged him to advertise his services as a mathematics teacher in a Berne newspaper (1902). The note ended up reading :

Dr. Weber, a physics professor, invited him to audit his lectures, since he was impressed with high scores in math and his great interest in physics. After a long scientific journey, he presented hi PhD thesis entitled. "On a New Determination of Molecular Dimensions.". With six strokes of his pen, AE revealed in 1907 the equation: E= mc² (read as Energy equals mass multiplied by the speed of light squared). He demolished Newton's idea of absolute space and absolute time. His formula implied that mass is frozen energy, and predicted that converting a small amount of mass would release an enormous amount of energy. The practical application of his "Special Theory of Relativity" has been the electric eye, used for opening and closing doors by remote controls, for counting & sorting goods, making radios, TVs & computers possible, and for the making of atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during WWII. Before his theory, time and space were believed to be seperate from matter. His theory proved that time and space are inseperable!

The Exceptional Brain and Area 39

In 1922, for his services to theoretical physics and especially for his discovery of the law of photoelectric effect, AE was offered the noble prize. Interestingly, AE was rejected for the prize eight times in eleven years, and was not offered the prize for his relativity theory! In April 17, 1955, Einstein died of a ruptured abdominal aneurysm at the age of 76. Dr. Thomas Harvey, the pathologist who carried out the autopsy at Princeton University, removed the brain, pickled it in formaldehyde - and kept it, while AE's opthalmologist, Dr. Henry Abrams kept his eyes as an expression of veneration and his body was cremated and the ashes dispersed in a river! It was reported that Einstein was sympathizing of his brain being studied and insisted that it should be used for research.

The first report on AE's brain came from Dr. Harvey. He reported that it was to all appearance well within the normal range - no bigger or heavier than any one else - with no significant neuropathology. Different studies were published on the brains of outstanding people such as the physician William Osler, mathematician Karl F. Gauss, physicist Siljestrom, musician Bach and philosopher Descartes by examining the weight of their brains and the profile of their gyral convolutions as a way of understanding the neurobiological basis of variation in intelligence. The second report was, "On the Brain of a Scientist: Albert Einstein", published by Prof. Marian Diamond and her colleagues from California University in 1985. Their data suggested that the neuronal: glial ratio of the left hemisphere of Einstein's brain is significantly lower than that of the control brain and that mental abilities ascribed to this area fit many of the comments AE himself made about his conceptinal processes. In 1994, Terence Hines from Pace University, New York, critisized the methodology of Diamond's study, mentioned that, "In summary, the Diamond et al paper is so seriously flawed that its conclusions should not be accepted."

In June 1999, the Canadian neuroscientist, Dr. Sandra Witelson and her colleagues published their study in the Lancet entitled, "The Exceptional Brain of Albert Einstein." In the article, they found that the overall size of Einstein's brain was about average, while the region responsible for visuospatial cognition, mathematical thought and imaginary movement in inferior parietal lobe was 15% wider than in control brains.

The Complete Einstein

With his brain now on the dissecting plate, and its news making headlines worldwide, many argue that theanatomical brain dissection alone will not give us the clue for a better understanding of the "Complete Einstein". There are various controversies, one of which needs a psycholinguistic to analyze and assess the 54 love letters to and from Einstein to his classmate and first wife, Mileva Maric. In 1992, these letters were compiled in a book by two academic historians from Boston University, Dr.J.Renn & Dr.R.Schulman entitled, "Albert Einstein, Mileva Maric: The Love Letters". Also, the relations of the charismatic young violinist and mathematician and lover, Einstein, to other women - Anna, Marie, Julia, Elsa, Joana, Elliet, etc. There is also a need to publish all the letters between Einstein and Sigmund Freud. Some mentioned that he had a child-like innocence with bursty lusty laughter, amnesia, moody - high spirited one day and depressed the other. If anything, what is required is a multidisciplinary approach by academic neuroscientists, psychologists, historians, psycholinguistics, pathologists and geneticists for a better understanding Einstein's genius as a man, the theory, and an era.

In Denis Brian's book, "Eintein: a life", he refers to the importance of a holistic approach to studying Einstein not merely the severing of his brain:

"Einstein's life. I discovered was full of triumphs and tragic ironies. The scientist who's mind took him to the further reaches with space had a schhizorphrenic son, who could not find his way across the street. The pacifist who literally would not hurt a fly felt compelled to urge the making of a devastating bomb. The humanist who showed compassion and concern for the children of strangers neglected his own sons and kept the existence of his first, illegitimate child a secret. The lover solitude was invariably surrounded by women, hounded by the press and mobbed by the crowd. And the dedicated democrat was constantly accussed of being a Communist or Communist dupe.
This account will surprise those fixed on him as a secular saint devoted only to good works and to solving cosmic mysteries. It will surprise because it explores what previous bibliographers left out or covered superficially - his private life, the earthbound Einstein. It is reveals him as far more compelling, complicated, and controversial - still in all his glory, but with his halo slightly askew. He is no less a genius for that, of course, and to many perhaps even more endearing." (Brian 1996: xi)

 

With these mere few words, The Ambassadors has only scratched the surface of the life of a world renowned scientist filled with achievement, accomplishment, and controversies. We are delighted and honoured to have published a few pages from the life of the revered and venerated astrophysicist. The "Complete Einstein" needs not to consider alone the exceptional brain but rather the human being, Albert Einstein.

Dr. Talaat I. Farag MBBCH, DCH, MSc, DMSc, FRCP (Edin), FACP is an adjunct professor at Dalhousie University in Halifax, NS, Canada. He is author and co-author of more than 150 medical studies. He is interested in paleo-pathology, paleo-genetics and critical analysis of civilizations and cultures..

ambassadors@sprint.ca

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