Tuesday, February 23, 2010


What Became of Albert Einstein's Brain?

Albert Einstein
was born at Ulm, in Württemberg, Germany, on March 14, 1879.
On April 18, 1955, the great mathematician and physicist Albert Einstein died.
He was 76 years old. Although Einstein's body was cremated, his brain was saved.
Dr. Thomas S. Harvey, a pathologist at Princeton Hospital, removed Einstein’s brain on the morning of Einstein's death.
What happened to the brain for years after this is somewhat of a mystery.

Please click here to know more about Albert Einstein and his Brain....

Please watch here and enjoy his real portrait:

Courtesy You tube:







http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/ein.html

Time Line of Einstein's Life
1879: Albert Einstein is born to Hermann Einstein (a featherbed
salesman) and his wife Pauline in Ulm, Germany.
1884: Around this time, Albert receives his first compass,
beginning his quest to investigate the natural world.
1889: At age 10, Albert sets into a program of self education and
reads as much about science as he can.
1894: The Einsteins move from Munich to Pavia, Italy and
Albert, 15, stays on in Munich to finish the school year. Albert
lasts only a term on his own and follows his family to Pavia.
1895: Albert attempts to skip high school by taking an entrance
exam to the Swiss Polytechnic, a top technical university, but he
fails the arts portion. His family sends him to the Swiss town of
Aarau to finish high school.
1896: Albert graduates from high school at the age of 17 and
enrolls at the ETH (the Federal Polytechnic) in Zurich.
1898: Albert falls in love with Mileva Maric, a Hungarian
classmate at the ETH.
1900: Albert graduates from the ETH.
1901: Albert becomes a Swiss citizen. Unemployed, he searches
for work. He and Mileva meet in northern Italy for a tryst.
Mileva becomes pregnant. In the fall, Albert finds work in
Schaffhausen, Switzerland as a tutor. Mileva, visibly pregnant,
moves to Stein Am Rhein, three miles upriver. Mileva then moves
to Hungary to give birth to their baby at her parent's home.
Albert moves to Bern.
1902: In January, Mileva gives birth to their daughter, Lieserl,
whom they eventually put up for adoption. She reportedly
becomes ill and then all record of her disappears. Albert takes a
job at the Swiss Patent Office. Hermann Einstein becomes ill and
dies.
1903: Albert and Mileva marry in January
1904: Mileva gives birth to their first son, Hans Albert.
1905: "Annus Mirabilis" -- Einstein's "Miracle Year": his Special
Theory of Relativity is born. June 30th, Einstein, submits his
paper, "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies" to the leading
German physics journal. At age 26, he applies his theory to mass
and energy and formulates the equation e=mc2.
1906: Still living in Bern, Einstein continues as an Examiner at
the Swiss Patent Office.
1907: Einstein begins applying the laws of gravity to his Special
Theory of Relativity.
1910: Son Eduard is born.
1911: The Einsteins move to Prague where Albert is given a full
professorship at the German University there. Albert is the
youngest to attend the invitation-only Solvay Conference in
Brussels, the first world physics conference.
1912: The Einsteins move to Zurich where Albert is given a
position as a professor of Theoretical Physics at the ETH.
1913: Einstein works on his new Theory of Gravity.
1914: Einstein becomes director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute
in Berlin and professor of theoretical physics at the University of
Berlin. The family moves there in April, but Mileva and the sons
return to Zurich after 3 months. The divorce prodeedings begin.
In August, World War I begins.
1915: Einstein completes the General Theory of Relativity.
1917: Einstein collapses and, near death, falls seriously ill. He is
nursed back to health by his cousin, Elsa. He publishes his first
paper on cosmology.
1919: Albert marries Elsa. May 29, a solar eclipse proves
Einstein's General Theory of Relativity works.
1922: Is awarded the Nobel Prize in physics for 1921.
1927: Attends fifth Solvay Conference and begins developing the
foundation of quantum mechanics with Bohr.
1928: Einstein begins pursing his idea of a unified field theory.
1932: Einstein is 53 and at the height of his fame. Identified as a
Jew, he begins to feel the heat of Nazi Germany.
1933: Albert and Elsa set sail for the United States. They settle in
Princeton, New Jersey where he assumes a post at the Institute for
Advanced Study.
1936: Elsa dies after a brief illness.
1939: World War II begins. Einstein writes a famous letter to
President Franklin D. Roosevelt warning of the possibility of
Germany's building an atomic bomb and urging nuclear research.
1940: Einstein becomes an American citizen; retains Swiss
citizenship.
1949: Mileva dies.
1955: Einstein dies of heart failure on April 16.
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What Is a Black Hole, Really?

A black hole is a celestial object of such extremely intense gravity that it attracts everything near it and prevents everything, including light, from escaping. The term was first used in reference to a star in the last phases of gravitational collapse.

Gravitational collapse begins when a star has depleted its steady sources of nuclear energy and can no longer produce the expansive force, a result of normal gas pressure, that supports the star against the compressive force of its own gravitation. In some cases, nothing remains to prevent the star from collapsing without limit to an indefinitely small size and infinitely large density, to create a black hole.

At this point the effects of Einstein's general theory of relativity become paramount. According to this theory, space becomes curved in the vicinity of matter (this is the meaning of gravity); the greater the concentration of matter, the greater the curvature (the greater the gravity). When the star shrinks below a certain size determined by its mass, the extreme curvature of space seals off contact with the outside world. The place beyond which no radiation can escape even not light.

It is now believed that the origin of some black holes is nonstellar. Some astrophysicists suggest that immense volumes of interstellar matter can collect and collapse into supermassive black holes, such as are found at the center of some galaxies.

Because light and other forms of energy and matter are permanently trapped inside a black hole, it can never be observed directly. However, a black hole could be detected by the effect of its gravitational field on nearby objects (e.g., if it is orbited by a visible star), during the collapse while it was forming, or by the X rays and radio frequency signals emitted by rapidly swirling matter being pulled into the black hole. A small number of possible black holes have been detected, although none of the discoveries has been conclusive.

Collected Quotes from Albert Einstein


* "Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction."
* "Imagination is more important than knowledge."
* "Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love."
* "I want to know God's thoughts; the rest are details."
* "The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax."
* "Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one."
* "The only real valuable thing is intuition."
* "A person starts to live when he can live outside himself."
* "I am convinced that He (God) does not play dice."
* "God is subtle but he is not malicious."
* "Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character."
* "I never think of the future. It comes soon enough."
* "The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility."
* "Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing."
* "Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind."
* "Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new."
* "Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds."
* "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."
* "Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen."
* "Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one's living at it."
* "The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."
* "The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education."
* "God does not care about our mathematical difficulties. He integrates empirically."
* "The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking."
* "Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal."
* "Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding."
* "The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible."
* "We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them."
* "Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school."
* "The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing."
* "Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater."
* "Equations are more important to me, because politics is for the present, but an equation is something for eternity."
* "If A is a success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut."
* "Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe."
* "As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality."
* "Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods."
* "I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."
* "In order to form an immaculate member of a flock of sheep one must, above all, be a sheep."
* "The fear of death is the most unjustified of all fears, for there's no risk of accident for someone who's dead."
* "Too many of us look upon Americans as dollar chasers. This is a cruel libel, even if it is reiterated thoughtlessly by the Americans themselves."
* "Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism -- how passionately I hate them!"
* "No, this trick won't work...How on earth are you ever going to explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first love?"
* "My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind."
* "Yes, we have to divide up our time like that, between our politics and our equations. But to me our equations are far more important, for politics are only a matter of present concern. A mathematical equation stands forever."
* "The release of atom power has changed everything except our way of thinking...the solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind. If only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker."
* "Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence."
* "The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed."
* "A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeeded be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death."
* "The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, the more certain it seems to me that the path to genuine religiosity does not lie through the fear of life, and the fear of death, and blind faith, but through striving after rational knowledge."
* "Now he has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That means nothing. People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion."
* "You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat."
* "One had to cram all this stuff into one's mind for the examinations, whether one liked it or not. This coercion had such a deterring effect on me that, after I had passed the final examination, I found the consideration of any scientific problems distasteful to me for an entire year."
* "...one of the strongest motives that lead men to art and science is escape from everyday life with its painful crudity and hopeless dreariness, from the fetters of one's own ever-shifting desires. A finely tempered nature longs to escape from the personal life into the world of objective perception and thought."
* "He who joyfully marches to music rank and file, has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action. It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder."
* "A human being is a part of a whole, called by us _universe_, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest... a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty."
* "Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts." (Sign hanging in Einstein's office at Princeton)