4 Chapter 3 Albert Takes a Very Deep Breath and Keeps Thinking

Chapter 3 Albert Takes a Very Deep Breath … and Keeps Thinking "One is born into a herd of buffaloes and must be glad if one is not trampled underfoot before one's time." —Albert Einstein Getting expelled from school—even a school he hated—was very painful for Albert. He was embarrassed to have failed so openly. He was angry with his teachers. He was disappointed in himself. Yet he was also excited that he would soon see his family. Albert joined his parents and sister in northern Italy. Italy was so different from Germany. Albert quickly fell in love with the country. Italians were so friendly, civilized, and open-minded. For the

第三章阿尔伯特深深地吸了一口气，并继续思考“一个人出生在一群水牛中，如果他在有生之年没有被踩在脚下，他一定会感到高兴。” 被学校开除——即使是他讨厌的学校——对阿尔伯特来说是非常痛苦的。 他为如此公开地失败而感到尴尬。 他生老师的气。 他对自己很失望。 然而，他也很兴奋，因为他很快就能见到他的家人。 艾伯特在意大利北部与他的父母和妹妹团聚。 意大利和德国太不一样了。 艾伯特很快就爱上了这个国家。 意大利人是如此友好、文明和开放。 为

next two years, Albert went to concerts and visited art museums. Best of all, he had time to read and to think. He studied the lives of scientists, including those who had suffered because their thinking had gone against widely held ideas of the time. For example, there was Nicholas Copernicus (1473–1543), the Polish astronomer. He was severely criticized for stating that the earth orbited around the sun and not vice versa. A hundred years later, in 1633, Galileo Galilei, an Italian scientist, was arrested for agreeing with Copernicus. Yet in Albert's time, no sane person believed that the sun circles the earth.

接下来的两年，艾伯特去听音乐会，参观艺术博物馆。 最重要的是，他有时间读书和思考。 他研究了科学家们的生活，包括那些因为他们的思想违背了当时广泛接受的观点而遭受痛苦的科学家。 例如，波兰天文学家尼古拉斯·哥白尼(1473-1543)。 他因为说地球绕太阳转而不是太阳绕地球转而受到严厉的批评。 100年后的1633年，意大利科学家伽利略·伽利莱因同意哥白尼的观点而被捕。 然而在阿尔伯特的时代，没有一个理智的人相信太阳绕着地球转。

The study of other scientists' theories pushed Albert's thinking even further. In Italy, he had the time to write down those thoughts and answer many of the questions he had been asking himself for years. Now he was a real scientist. He even

对其他科学家理论的研究进一步推动了阿尔伯特的想法。 在意大利，他有时间写下这些想法，并回答了他多年来一直在问自己的许多问题。 现在他是一个真正的科学家了。 他甚至

had his first scientific paper published in a magazine, while he was still a teenager! When scientists have new ideas to share, they write about them in scientific journals. (That's what it means to "get a paper published.") For Albert, as for all scientists, getting papers published was very important; it was the only way other scientists could learn about his ideas and thoughts.

当他还是个青少年的时候，他的第一篇科学论文就在杂志上发表了!当科学家有新的想法要分享时，他们会在科学期刊上发表。 (这就是“发表论文”的意思)对阿尔伯特来说，和所有科学家一样，发表论文非常重要;这是其他科学家了解他的想法和思想的唯一途径。

Albert's first published paper was about electricity and magnetism. That was no surprise. After all, he'd been thinking about both subjects for years. But to everybody's surprise, Albert began his paper by disagreeing with something that all scientists assumed was true. Scientists

阿尔伯特发表的第一篇论文是关于电和磁的。 这并不奇怪。毕竟，这两个课题他都想了好多年。 但出乎所有人意料的是，阿尔伯特在他的论文一开始就不同意所有科学家都认为正确的事情。 科学家们

claimed that the "empty" part of outer space—the part without planets and moons—was filled with something called "ether." Scientists had no idea what ether was made of, or what it looked like, felt like, or smelled like. But they all agreed it was there. Albert disagreed. He claimed that the empty part of space was, well, empty. Albert's first paper did not get a lot of attention. Although Albert was disappointed about that, he should not have been surprised. After all, Albert was a teenager who had been expelled from high school and who was still living with his parents. Who was he to challenge the theories of the world's most respected scientists? However, years later, many of those same scientists would seek out Einstein's first published paper and marvel at the genius of the young scientist. Because Albert was right. While living in Italy, Albert took long walks by himself. Day after day he hiked in the mountains. His family's business was failing, and Albert worried that he was a drain on his parents —a sponge that took but never gave back. He had lots to think about, and a daily walk and time alone cleared his mind. "I lived in solitude in the

声称外层空间的“空”部分——没有行星和卫星的部分——充满了一种叫做“以太”的东西。 科学家们不知道乙醚是由什么组成的，也不知道它的样子、感觉和气味。 但他们都同意它在那里。 艾伯特不同意。他声称空间的空部分是空的。 阿尔伯特的第一篇论文并没有得到很多关注。 虽然阿尔伯特对此感到失望，但他不应该感到惊讶。 毕竟，阿尔伯特还是个被高中开除的少年，还和父母住在一起。 他是谁，竟敢挑战世界上最受尊敬的科学家的理论? 然而，多年后，这些科学家中的许多人会寻找爱因斯坦发表的第一篇论文，并对这位年轻科学家的天才感到惊讶。 因为阿尔伯特是对的。在意大利生活时，阿尔伯特经常独自散步。 他日复一日地在山里徒步旅行。 他的家族生意日渐衰败，阿尔伯特担心自己会成为父母的负担——一块只会索取却从不回报的海绵。 他有很多事情要考虑，每天散步和独处的时间使他的头脑清醒。 “我孤独地生活在