6 Chapter 5 Albert Hits High Gear

Chapter 5 Albert Hits High Gear "If A equals success, then the formula is A equals X plus Y plus Z. X is work. Y is play. Z is keeping your mouth shut." —Albert Einstein In 1913, a famous university offered to pay Albert more money than he had ever made before. And all he had to do was come to the school and think. He would teach only when he felt like it. It was a dream come true … almost. The one drawback was that the university was in Berlin, Germany.

“如果A等于成功，那么公式就是A等于X + Y + Z。 X是功。Y是游戏。Z就是让你闭嘴。” -阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦1913年，一所著名的大学提出要付给阿尔伯特比他以前赚过的更多的钱。 他所要做的就是到学校来思考。 他只在自己想教的时候才会教。 这几乎是梦想成真了。 唯一的缺点是这所大学在德国柏林。

Although it had been nearly twenty years since Albert last lived in Germany, he hadn't forgotten his awful high school years. And Albert's wife, Mileva, didn't like Berlin or the people there. She thought they were mean and unfriendly. Mileva was also jealous of Albert's success. She was a brilliant scientist. But the world only cared about Albert. The more she thought about it, the less she wanted to leave Zurich and their many friends. Albert had to make a decision: Would he go off to Berlin to think, or stay in Zurich and be a good husband and father? Albert needed brilliant people around him who could help him think about his ideas. At the time, a scientist said, "Only a dozen men in the world understand relativity, and eight of them live in Berlin." Albert

虽然艾伯特上次住在德国已经快20年了，但他并没有忘记他那糟糕的高中时光。 阿尔伯特的妻子米列娃不喜欢柏林，也不喜欢那里的人。 她认为他们既卑鄙又不友好。 米列娃也嫉妒阿尔伯特的成功。 她是一位杰出的科学家。 但世界只关心阿尔伯特。 她越想越不想离开苏黎世和他们的许多朋友。 阿尔伯特必须做出决定:他是去柏林思考，还是留在苏黎世做一个好丈夫和好父亲? 阿尔伯特需要身边有聪明的人帮助他思考自己的想法。 当时，一位科学家说:“世界上只有十几个人懂相对论，其中八个住在柏林。” 艾伯特

remembered his hikes through Italy and the promises he had made to himself. He decided to go to Berlin. Albert left Mileva and their two children behind in Switzerland. Albert once admitted, "I treat my wife as an employee whom one cannot fire." It was not surprising that Mileva and Albert soon got divorced. Thereafter, Albert had little to do with her or their two sons. Years later, when Albert won the Nobel Prize in 1922, he sent the prize money to Mileva and their sons. Perhaps this made him feel less guilty for having abandoned his family.

想起了他在意大利的徒步旅行和他对自己做出的承诺。 他决定去柏林。 艾伯特把米列娃和他们的两个孩子留在了瑞士。 艾伯特曾经承认:“我把我的妻子当作一个不能解雇的雇员。” 米列娃和阿尔伯特很快就离婚了，这并不奇怪。 从那以后，艾伯特就很少和她或他们的两个儿子来往了。 多年以后，当阿尔伯特在1922年获得诺贝尔奖时，他把奖金寄给了米列娃和他们的儿子。 也许这使他对抛弃家庭感到不那么内疚了。

Albert's oldest son, Hans Albert, grew up to become a distinguished science professor in California. Occasionally he visited with his father.

阿尔伯特的大儿子汉斯·阿尔伯特长大后成为加州一位杰出的科学教授。 他偶尔去看望他的父亲。

Eduard, born in 1910, the younger son—whom Albert nicknamed "Tedel," which means "little bear"—was gifted in music and literature but suffered from mental illness. After his mother's death, Eduard lived in a hospital for the rest of his life. Albert once congratulated his son Hans Albert—whose birthday he never remembered—for being just like himself when it came to family. "It is a joy for me to have a son who has inherited the main trait of my personality: the ability to rise above mere existence by sacrificing oneself through the years for an impersonal goal. This is the best, indeed the only way in which we can make ourselves independent from personal fate and from other human beings." Albert never questioned his decision to choose scientific discovery over family. Albert and the Tube In 1922, Albert won a Nobel Prize—the most important award a scientist can ever win—for the thinking he did about "the photoelectrical effect." Albert's thinking about

小儿子爱德华出生于1910年，阿尔伯特给他起了个绰号叫“泰迪”，意思是“小熊”。爱德华在音乐和文学方面很有天赋，但患有精神疾病。 母亲去世后，爱德华在医院里度过了余生。 阿尔伯特曾经祝贺他的儿子汉斯·阿尔伯特——他不记得他的生日了——在家庭问题上表现得像他自己。 “我很高兴有一个儿子，他继承了我性格的主要特征:为了一个客观的目标，多年来牺牲自己，超越单纯的生存。” 这是最好的，甚至是唯一的方式，我们可以使自己独立于个人命运和其他人。” 阿尔伯特从来没有质疑过他选择科学发现而不是家庭的决定。 1922年，阿尔伯特因对“光电效应”的思考而获得诺贝尔奖——这是科学家所能获得的最重要的奖项。 阿尔伯特在想

the photoelectrical effect then led to the invention of TV. (You can thank Albert for the boob tube.) As for moving to Berlin, Mileva had good reason for not wanting to live in Germany. In the early 1900s, the countries of Europe were struggling with each other for power. Some countries had a lot of land, but little money. Many people were not allowed to worship as they wished. Several countries had large populations but weak armies. They all wanted what the others had, and they were willing to fight for it. The tension grew and grew. There was so much hatred, Europe felt like it was going to burst. Germany was one of the scariest countries. The government wanted to build the most powerful army in Europe to get rid of all of Germany's enemies.

光电效应导致了电视的发明。 (你可以感谢艾伯特送你的电视。)至于搬到柏林，米列娃有充分的理由不想在德国生活。 20世纪初，欧洲各国为争夺权力而相互争斗。 有些国家有很多土地，但钱很少。 许多人不被允许按自己的意愿做礼拜。 有几个国家人口众多，但军队薄弱。 他们都想要别人拥有的东西，并且愿意为此而战。 紧张局势越来越严重。 仇恨如此之多，欧洲觉得它要破裂了。 德国是最可怕的国家之一。 政府想要建立欧洲最强大的军队来消灭德国所有的敌人。