Albert Einstein
/ˈʌɪnstʌɪn
/1 (1879–1955), German-born American theoretical physicist, founder of the special and general theories of relativity.
1.1 (as noun an Einstein) A genius: you won’t have to be an Einstein to use it...
- But people often ask the question: do I have to be an Einstein to become a physicist?
- The politically correct explanation for the dearth of female Newtons and Einsteins is that female geniuses have been ‘oppressed’ by the usual conspiracy of white males, and by the very institution of civilization itself.
- A highly learned and well-read man, he was one of those eccentric geniuses, the cracked Einsteins, who come across as being totally and utterly insane.
Einstein is often regarded as the greatest scientist of the 20th century. In 1905 he published his special theory of relativity and in 1915 he succeeded in incorporating gravitation in his general theory of relativity, which was vindicated when one of its predictions was observed during the solar eclipse of 1919. However, Einstein searched without success for a unified field theory embracing electromagnetism, gravitation, relativity, and quantum mechanics. He influenced the decision to build an atom bomb but after the war he spoke out passionately against nuclear weapons.