He wasthe embodiment of pure intellect, the clumsy professor with the German accent, a comic cliche in a thousand films. Instantly recognizeable, like Charlie Chaplin's Little Tramp, Albert Einstein's face was as familiar to ordinary people as to the ladies who fluttered about him in salons from Berlin to Hollywood.Yet he was incredibly profound- the genius amony genius who discovered,merely by thinking about it, that the universe way not as it seemed.

Much to his surprise, his ideas ,like Darwin's, had far-reaching impacts beyong science, influencing morden culture from paiting to poetry. At first even many scientists didn't really graso relativity, prompting Arthur Eddington's celebrated wisecrack (asked if it was true that only three people understood relatvity,the witty British astrophysicist paused, then said,"I am trying t think who third person is ") To the world at large, relativity seemed to pull the rug out from under perceived reality. And for many advanced thinkers of 1920s, from Dadaists to Cubists to Freudians, that wat a fitting belief,reflecting what science historian David Cassidy calls " the incomprehensiveness of contemporary scene- the fall of morchies, the disruption of the social order,in-deed, all the turbulence of 20th century."

2.Unlike the father figure of his later years who left his hair uncut,helped little girls with their math homework and was a soft tiouch for almost worthy cause, Einstein is foun as a man whose unsettled private life contrasts sharply with his serene contemplation of the universe. he could be alternately warmhearted and cold, a loving father ,yet aloof; an understanding , if difficult ,mate, but also an extremely bad flirt. Deeply and passionately concerned with the fate of every stranger,"wrote his friend and biographer Philip Frank, he "immediately withdrew into his shell" when relations became intimate.

Einstein himsel resisted all efforts to explore his mind, rejecting,for example, a Freudian analyst's offer to put him on the couch. But curiosity about him continues, as is evidenced by the continuous tide of Einstein books