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So, you think you know Albert Einstein, the absent-minded genius who gave us the 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 most well-known genius:
你觉得你了解给我们带来了相对论的健忘天才艾伯特·爱因斯坦?但你知道么,爱因斯坦出生时头非常大,他母亲还以为自己生了个畸形儿;爱因斯坦在结婚前还有个私生女。继续看看以下这些关于这个世界上最著名的天才所不为人知的故事吧:
1. Einstein Was a Fat Baby with a Large Head 爱因斯坦出生时是个大头胖婴儿
When Einstein’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 him a 1)monstrosity. The physician, however, was able to calm them down, and some weeks later the shape of the head was normal.
当爱因斯坦的母亲波琳·爱因斯坦生下他时,她看到爱因斯坦的头那么大且奇形怪状,还以为孩子天生畸形!由于爱因斯坦的后脑勺看上去太大了,家人起初都觉得他是畸形儿,然而医生让他们冷静了下来。几周后,爱因斯坦的头形恢复了正常。
2. Einstein Had Speech Difficulty as a Child 爱因斯坦小时候有言语障碍
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 speaking them aloud. According to accounts, Einstein did this until he was nine years old. Einstein’s parents were fearful that he was 2)retarded. 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. Einstein replied, “Because up to now everything was in order.”
爱因斯坦小时候很少说话,好不容易开口了,他也说得非常慢——事实上,爱因斯坦会把所有的句子都在脑里过一遍(或是低声咕哝出来),直到觉得没问题了才大声说出来。有记载显示,爱因斯坦直到九岁之后才没继续这么做。他的父母担心他智力迟钝。最终,在某个晚上吃晚饭时,他打破了沉默,说道:“这汤太烫了。”他的父母这才大大松了一口气,放下心来。他们问他之前为什么从不说出来。爱因斯坦答道:“因为这之前一切都相安无事。”
3. Einstein was Inspired by a Compass 爱因斯坦受到指南针的启发
When Einstein was five years old and sick in bed, his father showed him something that sparked his interest in science: a simple pocket compass. What interested young Einstein was that, whichever way 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.
爱因斯坦5岁的时候,有一次生病躺在床上,他父亲给他看了件东西,从而激发起他对科学的兴趣:一个简单的袖珍指南针。这个东西让小爱因斯坦非常感兴趣的地方在于,无论朝哪摆弄,其指针总指向同一个方向。他觉得在大家都觉得空无一物的空间里肯定存在着某种力量作用于那个指南针。
4. Einstein Became 3) Estranged from His First Wife, Then Proposed a Strange “Contract”
爱因斯坦与第一任妻子关系疏离, 并提出了一份奇怪的契约
After Einstein and 4)Mileva Marić 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:
A. You will make sure
1. That my clothes and5)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 6)renounce all personal relations with me 7)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 8)all-business in the future.
爱因斯坦和米列娃·马里奇结婚之后,他们生育了两个孩子:汉斯·艾伯特以及艾杜亚德·爱因斯坦。然而,爱因斯坦的学术成就和环球旅行是有代价的——这使得他与妻子的关系日渐疏离。有一段时间,这对夫妻试图解决他们之间的问题——爱因斯坦甚至提出了有关两人共同生活的一份奇怪的“契约”:
A. 你必须保证
1.我的干净衣服以及要洗的衣服都摆放有序;
2.一日三餐定时送至我的房间里;
3.我的卧室和书房保持整洁,特别是我那张桌子只能我自己用。
B. 只要不是完全出于社交必要,你必须断绝跟我的所有私人关系……
还有别的条款,包括“如果我要求你停止和我讲话,你得遵从。”她接受了这些条件。他后来还再次写信给她,以确定她明白将来大家得以“公事公办”的方式相处。
5. Einstein Was a 9) Ladies’ Man 爱因斯坦是个花心男人
After Einstein divorced Mileva, he soon married his cousin, Elsa Lowenthal. Actually, Einstein also considered marrying Elsa’s daughter, Ilse, who was 18 years younger than him, but she 10)demurred. She just loved him as a father.
Unlike Mileva, Elsa Einstein’s main concern was to take care of her famous husband. She undoubtedly knew about, and yet tolerated, Einstein’s 11)infidelity and love affairs, which were later revealed in his letters. Einstein described about six women with whom he spent time and from whom he received gifts while being married to Elsa.
爱因斯坦和米列娃·马里奇离婚后不久,他就迎娶了他的表妹埃尔莎·洛文塔尔。实际上,在娶她之前,爱因斯坦还考虑过娶她的女儿伊尔瑟,但被伊尔瑟拒绝了。伊尔瑟比爱因斯坦小18岁,她只把他当父亲那般爱戴。
和米列娃不一样的是,埃尔莎把精力主要放在照顾好自己那名震四海的丈夫。无疑,她知道丈夫出轨的那些风流韵事,然而她选择默然忍受。这些风流韵事后来在他的信件中有所披露。爱因斯坦描述过,在与埃尔莎的婚姻生涯中,他和六个女人有过暧昧关系,还从她们那里获得了一些礼物。
6. Einstein, the War Pacifist, Urged 12) FDR to Build the Atom Bomb
爱好和平反对战争的爱因斯坦力劝富兰克林·德兰诺·罗斯福总统制造原子弹
In 1939, alarmed by the rise of 13)Nazi Germany, physicist 14)Leó Szilárd convinced Einstein to write a letter to president Franklin Delano Roosevelt warning that Nazi Germany might be conducting researchinto developing an atomic bomb and urging the United States to develop its own. The Einstein-Szilárd’s letter was often cited as one of the reasons Roosevelt started the secret 15)Manhattan Project 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 16)spur the government.
Although Einstein was a brilliant physicist, the army considered Einstein a 17)security risk and (to Einstein’s relief) did not invite him to help in the project.
1939年,警觉到纳粹德国的崛起,物理学家利奥·西拉德说服爱因斯坦给富兰克林·德兰诺·罗斯福总统写了一封信,提醒纳粹德国可能正在研发原子弹,并且力劝美国也自行研发原子弹。爱因斯坦和西拉德的信件后来经常被引用为罗斯福秘密启动“曼哈顿计划”来制造原子弹的理由之一。尽管后来有资料显示,1941年的“珍珠港事件”远比这封信对美国政府决心发展原子弹项目的作用要大。
虽然爱因斯坦是个聪明绝顶的物理学家,但军方认为他对国家安全有所威胁,并没请他参与曼哈顿计划,这可让他松了一口气。
7. The 18) Saga of Einstein’s Brain: 19) Pickled in a Jar for 43 Years and Driven Cross Country in the 20) Trunk of a 21) Buick!
爱因斯坦大脑的传奇:被泡在一个广口瓶里长达43年,还被放在一部别克汽车的车尾箱里穿州过省
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 22)autopsy. Harvey took the brain home and kept it in a jar. He was later fired from his job for refusing to23)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 24)glial cells in the region of the brain that is responsible for 25)synthesizing information.
The saga of Einstein’s brain can be quite strange at times: in the early 1990s, Harvey went with freelance writer 26)Michael Paterniti on a cross-country trip to California to meet Einstein’s granddaughter. They drove off from New Jersey in Harvey’s Buick 27)Skylark with Einstein’s brain28)sloshing around inside a jar in the trunk!
In 1998, the 85-year-old Harvey delivered Einstein’s brain to Dr. Elliot Krauss, the staff pathologist at Princeton University, where Einstein had spent his last two decades.
1955年,爱因斯坦去世后,在没经过其家人同意的情况下,普林斯顿医院的病理学家托马斯·斯托尔兹·哈维通过解剖把他的大脑取出,带回家,保存在一个广口瓶中。他后来因为拒绝交出这个器官而被解雇。很多年后,哈维此时已获得了汉斯·艾伯特的同意来研究爱因斯坦的大脑,他把大脑切片分送给世界各地的科学家们,其中就有加州大学伯克利分校的玛丽安·戴尔蒙德,她发现,与常人相比,爱因斯坦的大脑里负责综合信息的区域明显有更多的胶质神经单元。
有关爱因斯坦大脑的传奇故事不时出现奇异的章节:上世纪90年代初,哈维和自由作家迈克尔·帕特尼提开车穿越多个州份前往加州与爱因斯坦的孙女见面。他们开着哈维的别克云雀从新泽西州出发,而爱因斯坦的大脑就在车尾箱的那个瓶子里左摇右晃!
1998年,85岁的哈维把爱因斯坦的大脑移交给了普林斯顿大学的一位病理学家艾略特·克劳斯博士,而普林斯顿大学正是爱因斯坦度过生命最后二十年的地方。
1) monstrosity [mɒn5strɒsItI] n. 怪物，畸形
2) retarded [rI5tB:dId] adj. 智力迟钝的
3) estranged [I5streIndVd] adj. 疏远的
4) Mileva Marić 米列娃．马里奇（1875—1948），爱因斯坦的第一任妻子，出生在塞尔维亚的一个富农家庭，是欧洲首批学习数学和物理学的女子之一
5) laundry [5lC:ndrI] n. 要洗的衣服
6) renounce [rI5naJns] v. 断绝关系
7) insofar [InsEJ5fB:] adv. 只要……，在…范围内
8) all-business 公事公办的，认真的
除了本文节选的七件有关爱因斯坦不为人知的事以外，原味还提及了另外三件事：
爱因斯坦有一个私生女
在和爱因斯坦结婚之前，米列娃·马里奇就为爱因斯坦生了一个名为莉塞尔的私生女，不过爱因斯
坦并没见过她，而且这个女孩的命运至今是个谜。
爱因斯坦没有通过大学入学考试
爱因斯坦17岁时就申请进入瑞士联邦理工学院就读，他当时通过了数学和自然科学的考试，但没通过历史、语言和地理等科目的考试，所以不得不进入一所商业学校就读。不过一年后，他终于考入了这个学院。
离婚后，爱因斯坦和大儿子汉斯·艾伯特关系很差
汉斯不满他和母亲米列娃离婚，且责怪爱因斯坦在获得诺贝尔奖之后，只让她使用那笔奖金的利息而不能使用本金过活。这对父子之间的隔阂因爱因斯坦反对汉斯娶弗里达·克耐西特为妻这一事件而进一步拉大。后来，汉斯移民美国在伯克利大学担任水利工程教授。爱因斯坦死后留给大儿子很少遗产。
另外还有三件少有人知道但值得一提的事：
受邀担任以色列第二任总统
以色列第一任总统于1952年Il月去世后的几天里，爱因斯坦就被邀请担任以色列第二任总统。但当时已73岁的爱因斯坦回绝说，自己不仅“没有才智和经验，无法妥善照顾人民，而且已经太老了”。
从不穿袜子
爱因斯坦衣冠不整的造型迷倒了不少人。他除了头发蓬乱，还从来不穿袜子。无论是划船时还是在白宫正式的晚宴上，他都是光脚穿鞋的。对他来说，穿袜子是一种痛苦，因为袜子上常常会破开一个个洞。另外，他还觉得袜子和鞋子的功能是一样的，没必要同时穿两个。
设计了一个冰箱
在狭义相对论完成后的第21年，爱因斯坦发明了一个免插电的环保冰箱。它没有移动部件，完全通过压缩气体达到制冷效果。这个冰箱在1926年获得了专利，但从未投入生产。如今，人们崇尚“环保”，这项发明自然又引起了人们的关注。