University releases scripts shedding light on genius Einstein

The Hebrew University in Jerusalem (HU) has released previously unveiled manuscripts 140 years after Albert Einstein’s birth.

The 110 manuscripts relate to his scientific discoveries which still impact our lives, including lasers, nuclear power, fibre optics, driverless cars, GPS and space travel, which all trace back to Einstein’s theories.

The manuscript pages also shed light on the man behind the genius scientist, who was a founding father of the HU.

The new collection contains 84 sheets, most of them mathematical derivations from 1944-48. Among these is a handwritten unpublished appendix to a scientific article on the Unified Theory that Einstein submitted to the Prussian Academy of Science in 1930.

There is also a 1935 letter from Einstein to his son Hans Albert, who was living in Switzerland at the time, where the father expresses concern about the deteriorating situation in Europe and the rise of the Nazi party in Germany.

“I read with some apprehension that there is quite a moveresigned ment in Switzerland, instigated by the German bandits. But I believe that even in Germany things are slowly starting to change,” wrote Einstein. “Let’s just hope we won’t have a Europe war first … the rest of Europe is now starting to finally take the thing seriously, especially the British.

“If they would have come down hard a year and a half ago, it would have been better and easier.”

The new manuscripts were acquired for HU’s Albert Einstein Archives thanks to a philanthropic gift by the Crown-Goodman Family Foundation in Chicago.

They were purchased from a private collector in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

The new documents have been digitised for preservation. – ANA