10 Surprising Facts About Einstein

Most people recognize Albert Einstein as the wild-haired, violin-playing genius who reshaped physics, and many know that his groundbreaking theories came from a series of creative thought experiments, or gedankenexperiment. But did you also know he was a colorful character who happily avoided socks, dodged German military service, and defied societal expectations? Or that he was a passionate, though mediocre, sailor?

Since his solar eclipse observations in 1919 thrust him into the global spotlight, we've been fascinated with him. And why wouldn't we be? Einstein's impact wasn't limited to the scientific breakthroughs he pioneered. His relativity theories, which broke from the traditional Newtonian view of the universe, became a symbol of a larger cultural shift away from Enlightenment-era ideas in art, literature, morality, and politics. Furthermore, his outspoken political and social views, often expressed through witty and philosophical quotes, have made him a fixture in pop culture, adorning dorm-room walls and beyond for decades.

However, with the release of his private papers 30 years after his passing, have we reached the point of knowing too much about Einstein? Do they serve as a reminder to never meet our heroes, or simply show that all geniuses are ultimately human? As we explore the many sides of this remarkable individual, our answer may shift depending on our perspective.

10: He Started Speaking Later Than Most Children

Einstein did not begin speaking until relatively late in his childhood, remaining somewhat of a quiet child until he was 7 years old [source: Wolff and Goodman]. This, combined with his intense focus on physics, his strict routines with his wife, and his musical abilities, has led some to speculate that he may have had Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism spectrum disorder that influences speech and behavior development in children.

Other historical figures, such as physicists Isaac Newton and Marie Curie and artists like Wassily Kandinsky and J.M.W. Turner, have also been subjects of similar posthumous speculation regarding autism [source: James]. Taking a different perspective, Stanford economist and author Thomas Sowell introduced the term "Einstein Syndrome" to describe highly gifted individuals with delayed speech, but not autism. How these ideas align with or differ from the more widely known concept of asynchronous development, where gifted children show uneven developmental progress, remains an open question.

Ultimately, Einstein, who thought in vivid images, may have simply had a rich inner world that didn’t require speech. As a famous story goes, he once remarked, "up to now everything was in order."

9: He Didn't Actually Struggle in School

It's easy to spread ironic myths about famous individuals, especially in today's click-bait world. That's why the tales of Einstein's struggles with math and his failure at college entrance exams continue to circulate. In reality, Einstein showed remarkable skill in both physics and math from a young age, even studying calculus by the age of 12. He was also proficient in Greek conjugation and Latin declension. So, where did the myth of his math failure originate? Likely from a time in his education when school officials changed the grading system, confusing future biographers by turning A's into F's.

Einstein did indeed fail his first round of entrance exams, but there were extenuating factors. When he applied to the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology at the age of 15, he was a dropout without a high school diploma. Additionally, his education lacked French, chemistry, and biology, which were necessary for the exams. However, his stellar performance in mathematics and physics earned him a spot at the university, on the condition that he complete his secondary education soon after.

8: He Had an Illegitimate Daughter With an Unclear Fate

While studying in Zurich, Einstein developed a romantic relationship with an older physics student, Mileva Marić, who would later become his first wife. Their relationship was considered a modern love affair by the standards of late 19th-century Europe. They became very close and created affectionate nicknames for one another: He called her 'Dollie,' and she referred to him as 'Johnnie.'

Marić was an extraordinary woman who overcame substantial societal barriers to become the fifth woman to be accepted at the prestigious university [sources: PBS]. However, for years after graduation, Einstein struggled with financial difficulties and could not marry her. Additionally, his parents disapproved of Marić, seeing her as an older, intellectual Eastern Orthodox Serb. It wasn't until just before his father’s death in 1902 that he finally gave his approval for their marriage [sources: Golden; Kaku; PBS].

In January of that year, the couple welcomed a daughter, Lieserl (a short form of Elisabeth). Marić returned to her family’s home near Novi Sad, a cultural hub for Serbs located in what was then the Kingdom of Hungary, but is now part of Serbia’s rural Vojvodina region. She gave birth to the child there, but after that, the couple never spoke of their daughter, even to close friends. To this day, the fate of Lieserl remains a mystery. Two leading theories suggest she either died from scarlet fever or was put up for adoption [sources: Golden; Kaku; PBS].

7: He Was a Cad With a Chaotic Family Life

Despite the bond that Einstein and Marić once had, their marriage quickly unraveled, as evidenced by their letters. In fact, Einstein's own writings depict him as a callous philanderer who neglected Marić while indulging in multiple flirtations and affairs [sources: Golden]. One of these affairs was with his cousin Elsa, who eventually became his second wife, although he also entertained the idea of marrying her daughter, his future stepdaughter. This must have made family reunions awkward and confusing, considering Elsa was his first cousin on his mother's side and second cousin on his father's side [sources: Golden; Kaku]. Einstein also cheated on Elsa, but she turned a blind eye as long as he kept his extramarital affairs discreet.

Struggling financially and unable to support both himself and his first wife in the event of a divorce, Einstein struck a deal with Marić: she would grant him a divorce, and he would give her and their two sons the prize money from his anticipated Nobel. After five years of living separately, Marić finally divorced Albert in 1919. Following the divorce, Einstein became increasingly distant from his sons, one of whom was schizophrenic, leaving Marić to care for them and her own fractured family [sources: Golden; Kaku; PBS].

6: He Had One Heck of a Year

In 1905, Einstein authored four influential papers that revolutionized ideas about space, time, mass, and energy, laying the groundwork for modern physics. During this time, he also wrote his doctoral thesis and worked as a third-class examiner in the Swiss patent office.

After graduating, Einstein applied to several academic positions, but each institution rejected him. One reason for these rejections was a letter of recommendation he had foolishly requested from Heinrich Weber, a professor whose classes he often skipped [sources: Kaku]. This experience served as a sharp reminder of the difference between intelligence and wisdom. Nevertheless, the clerkship provided Einstein with ample time to ponder and eventually create his four groundbreaking papers, all published in a single remarkable year, a true annus mirabilis:

5: He Mediated a Hostage Negotiation

Einstein was ready to put his belief in peace and pacifism into practice, even if it meant putting himself at risk. In 1914, alongside three colleagues in Germany, he took a bold stance by signing a public statement denouncing the empire's militaristic agenda and its involvement in World War I [source: Kaku]. The four issued their statement as a response to the government's "Manifesto to the Civilized World," a document that justified Germany's invasion of neutral Belgium and which was signed by almost 100 renowned German intellectuals. While many of his peers contributed their intellects to the war effort, Einstein refused to do so.

The war left Germany in ruins, financially strained and socially unstable. Amidst the chaos, radical students at the University of Berlin took several professors, including the rector, as hostages. No one knew how the police would handle the standoff [sources: Bolles; Kaku]. Because both students and professors respected Einstein, he and Max Born, a key figure in quantum mechanics, found themselves in the position of mediators. Together, they successfully diffused the tense situation [source: Kaku]. Later, Einstein reflected on the situation with a sense of amusement, remarking on how naive they had been for never considering the possibility that the students could have turned on them [source: Bolles].

4: He Didn't Win the Nobel Prize for Relativity

Like most major scientific breakthroughs, Einstein's theory of special relativity in 1905 did not emerge out of nowhere. His brilliance lay in his ability to take the existing work of scientists such as Henri Poincaré and Hendrik Lorentz and merge it into a cohesive new theory, one that resolved the tension between Newtonian physics and James Clerk Maxwell's light theory.

In 1916, Einstein expanded upon his special relativity theory with the publication of his theory of general relativity, incorporating gravity and acceleration through the idea of curved space-time. Proving one of its most pivotal predictions—the gravitational lensing effect—took many years. It wasn't until astronomers observed the bending of light during the 1919 solar eclipse that the theory's validity was confirmed. This discovery propelled Einstein to instant fame, but it wasn't until three years later that he was honored with the Nobel Prize in Physics for his contributions, awarded in 1922.

Einstein was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work on "the discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect." This phenomenon involves the emission of charged particles (such as ions or electrons) from a material after it absorbs electromagnetic radiation, like light. Einstein's groundbreaking research helped clarify the long-standing confusion over light's particle-wave nature. However, during his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Einstein chose to focus on his work with general relativity, a theory that had occupied him for almost a decade and whose true significance would not be recognized for many years.

3: He Co-invented a Refrigerator

Households in the 1920s were filled with hazardous materials, from poisonous gases in pipes to arsenic-laced wallpaper. In this context, the shift from traditional iceboxes—wooden boxes containing ice—to electrical refrigerators made matters even more dangerous, as these appliances sometimes leaked volatile chemicals like methyl chloride, ammonia, or sulfur dioxide, putting unsuspecting homeowners at risk.

In 1926, an incident prompted Einstein to collaborate with Hungarian physicist Léo Szilàrd to invent an innovative appliance: the absorption refrigerator. This device only required ammonia, butane, and water, plus a heat source to power the pump. Patented in 1930, the refrigerator functioned on the principle that liquids boil at lower temperatures when exposed to reduced atmospheric pressure. As the pressure above the butane reservoir decreased, the butane evaporated, absorbing heat from its surroundings and cooling the fridge. With no moving parts, the appliance was designed to last as long as its casing [sources: Jha].

Despite the promise of Einstein and Szilàrd's refrigerator, it was eventually overshadowed by more efficient models and the advent of chlorofluorocarbons, which replaced hazardous coolants and made compressor refrigerators safer for people, though not for the ozone layer. Today, however, renewed interest in their invention has emerged, especially in remote or rugged areas where their refrigeration method could provide an alternative to conventional systems.

2: He Was Offered the Presidency of Israel

Although Einstein is primarily remembered for his groundbreaking work as a physicist, his political views have gained almost as much fame as his scientific contributions. However, these views were more nuanced and complex than many people realize.

Einstein was a staunch pacifist throughout his life, though his stance shifted when it came to defending against the threat posed by the Nazis, who had singled him out for persecution. When he learned that German scientists were potentially working on nuclear chain reactions that could be weaponized, he wrote to President Roosevelt urging the U.S. government to coordinate its own research into the field. This letter may have played a role in the establishment of the Manhattan Project, though Einstein, considered a security risk due to his ties to peace movements and organizations like the NAACP, was not invited to join. However, his famous equation E = mc² proved pivotal to the successful development of the first atomic bombs [sources: Kaku]. Later, Einstein also contributed to the war effort by auctioning off his manuscripts and actively campaigned against the hydrogen bomb and nuclear proliferation after the war.

In 1952, Israel's prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, extended an offer to Einstein to become the first president of the newly founded state of Israel. Einstein respectfully declined, citing his advanced age and explaining that his lifelong dedication to objective scientific work had left him ill-suited to the political realm [sources: Einstein; Kaku].

1: His Brain and Eyes Were Stolen

Einstein had requested that his body be cremated with his ashes scattered in private, to prevent any sort of shrine being erected at his grave. However, when pathologist Dr. Thomas Harvey arrived at the Princeton morgue on April 18, 1955, the plans were abandoned. Presented with the opportunity to study the brain of a genius, Harvey removed 2.7 pounds (1.2 kilograms) of Einstein's gray matter, without permission or any experience in neuroscience. He also took Einstein's eyeballs and gave them to the physicist's eye doctor, Henry Adams. The eyes remain in a safe deposit box in New York City to this day [sources: Schifrin; Toland].

A bizarre and tragicomic series of events followed, as Harvey stashed slices and pieces of Einstein's brain in jars—first in his basement, then in a cider box hidden under a beer cooler during his multiple relocations after losing his medical license, and eventually in the backseat of a reporter's car. Harvey seemed determined to uncover what made Einstein's brain so remarkable, but despite 43 years of attempts, he never managed to study it, likely due to his constant moving or perhaps a lack of the necessary expertise and resources. In the end, most of the brain was returned to Princeton, completing the strange journey of the physicist's remains [sources: Schifrin; Toland].