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He stopped traffic on Fifth Avenue like the Beatles or Marilyn Monroe. He could've been president of Israel or played violin at Carnegie Hall, but he was too busy thinking. His musings on God, love and the meaning of life grace our greeting cards and day-timers.
Fifty years after his death, his shock of white hair and droopy mustache still symbolize genius.
Einstein remains the foremost scientist of the modern era. Looking back 2,400 years, only Newton, Galileo and Aristotle were his equals.
Around the world, universities and academies are celebrating the 100th anniversary of Einstein's "miracle year" when he published five scientific papers in 1905 that fundamentally changed our grasp of space, time, light and matter. Only he could top himself about a decade later with his theory of general relativity.
Born in the era of horse-drawn carriages, his ideas launched a dazzling technological revolution that has generated more change in a century than in the previous two millennia.
Computers, satellites, telecommunication, lasers, television and nuclear power all owe their invention to ways in which Einstein peeled back the veneer of the observable world to expose a stranger and more complicated reality underneath.
Yet there is more, and it is why Einstein transcends mere genius and has become our culture's grandfatherly icon.
He escaped Hitler's Germany and devoted the rest of his life to humanitarian and pacifist causes with an authority unmatched by any scientist today, or even most politicians and religious leaders.
He used his celebrity to speak out against fascism, racial prejudice and the McCarthy hearings. His FBI file ran 1,400 pages.
His letters reveal a tumultuous personal life -- married twice and indifferent toward his children while obsessed with physics. Yet he charmed lovers and admirers with poetry and sailboat outings. Friends and neighbors fiercely protected his privacy.
（Agencies) |
他曾像披头士和玛莉莲·梦露一样让第五大道交通阻塞，他本可以成为以色列总统，或在卡内基音乐厅演奏小提琴，但他却把时间都用来思考。他对上帝、真爱以及人生意义的思考时常出现在贺卡和台历上。
在他去世50年后，他那一头浓密的白发，微垂的两撇“八”字胡仍是天才的象征。
爱因斯坦依然是现代最伟大的科学家，即使是追溯历史，在过去的2400年中，也只有牛顿、伽利略和亚里士多德才能与之比肩。
今年刚好是爱因斯坦“奇迹年”一百周年纪念，世界各地的大学和研究机构都在纪念具有传奇色彩的1905年，因为在那一年，爱因斯坦发表了五篇科学论文，从根本上改变了人们对空间、时间、光和物质的理解，也只有他自己才能在10年后再次超越自己，提出了广义相对理论。
爱因斯坦出生在马车盛行的年代，但他的理论和思想却引发了一场令人目不暇接的科学技术革命。在短短百年中，这场科技革命带来的的变化远比以往2000年来变化的总和还要多。
计算机、人造卫星、电子通讯、激光、电视以及原子能的创造发明都归功于爱因斯坦提出的研究方法：剥离可见世界的伪装，探索在隐藏在表层之下的更为陌生和复杂的真相。
当然爱因斯坦意味的并不仅仅是这些，他已经超越了科学天才的范畴，成为人类文明中德高望重的偶像。
二战时期，他逃离了希特勒统治下的德国并把他的余生都献给了人道主义与和平主义事业。他的影响力和威望是当今任何科学家和大多数的政治或宗教领袖都不能企及的。
作为公众人物，爱因斯坦常常站出来抨击法西斯主义、种族歧视以及当时美国当权者提出的“麦卡锡主义”。在美国联邦调查局的档案里，关于他的记录多达1400页。
爱因斯坦的书信揭示了他不寻常的个人生活：他结过两次婚；每当专注思考物理问题时，他就会对身边的子女漠不关心；但是，他也会“利用”诗歌和帆船航行来吸引他的爱人和仰慕者。他的朋友和邻居们都极力保护他的隐私。
（中国日报网站译） |
