Celebrating the birthday and life of an extraordinary man of science, life and the universe as we know it

1. “Happy Birthday Albert Einstein”
There are many great stories in history surrounding historical figures that depict feats of courage,
endurance or adversity, but never have I been more taken by the story of this man - Albert Einstein.
No matter how many versions I read about Einstein, I never once came across a side to him that was
questionable in any way. He was, and still is the definition of Integrity in its purest form.
I can’t tell you how many times I have been told, “daydreaming is not doing, and daydreaming gets
you nowhere. Then there’s my old favourite … one day you will have to come back to reality, then
what?” How do you explain your thoughts to another? Thoughts that flood your mind and take a
considerable amount of control to tame when they just keep coming, one after the other. This is why
I scribble a lot. Anything that I can write on, I will. I have a journal by my bed, in my handbag, next to
my laptop and mountains of paper with frantic, even misplaced thoughts written all over them.
Sometimes even I have trouble deciphering them. But they all came from somewhere!
Like Einstein, I too was born under the sign of Pisces - The last sign of the zodiac that incorporates all
of the preceding signs, including our own. We have been described as too dreamy, too sensitive,
indecisive, and unrealistic to name just a few. It is true that we tend to check out now and then, okay
a LOT, but when we do, it is to a place where visions are born, dreams are created and where
anything we believe to be possible lives in real and vivid Technicolor.
This so-called dreamy state is not one filled with white fluffy clouds as is often described; it is a
chaotic place full of frustration, and can be a full blown battle on the best of days – a veritable
monster of creativity riding on the back of a storm. It is in the eye of the storm that we reside, and
we thrive more in this environment than anywhere else! This is where we produce our best work,
and we look forward to going back there because the undeniable passion we have inside has evolved
into masters at taming our creative beast. We know how this works, and we are not afraid to try,
and continue to try no matter what it takes. We have been doing this “naturally” long before it
became a fashionable technique to learn in self-help books or seminars.
We analyse A LOT! It is a self-imposed perfectionism that is unnecessary most of the time, and we
hate that we do it to the extent that we do, but we must nonetheless. Why? Never ask us that
question if you are looking for a short answer and are not prepared to listen to the actual why,
because you will end up with five or maybe more answers, and then I will explain all five or maybe
more to you. Most of which you will roll your eyes at.

2. Pisceans know a lot about a lot of things, simply because they need to learn all day every day. Pick a
subject and they will have a fair amount of well researched knowledge about it to strike up a decent
conversation. A single word can trigger a Piscean to crave more knowledge there and then; it’s
torturous having to wait, so usually they will make a note that will remind them to do it later. And
later means that same evening (and they will stay up late until they are satisfied). If a Piscean
witness’s one of nature’s wonders, they will want to know how is that possible? Immediately! They
may be a secretary typing all day, and in the back of their mind be wondering about the science
behind a rainbow, and why the hell they are a secretary when they could be thinking about how to
solve stuff instead. Focus can be a problem, but once they have the answer they crave (which usually
means cutting themselves off from the world to find it), they move on to the next - and there is
always a next!
It is this un-relinquishing need to know that keeps us up at night. The existence of life and the living
is a Piscean dream, and anything that is detrimental to that is felt hard and very deep within. Never
underestimate the dreamy Piscean mind, for they are the creators, true believers and imagineers
who reside comfortably between both worlds!
Blaise Pascal, the famous philosopher and scientist once said – “All of man’s troubles stem from the
inability to sit quietly in a room, alone.”
Albert Einstein March 14th
1879 – April 18th
1955 (PISCEAN)
On March 8th
2016 a total solar eclipse occurred in the birth sign of Pisces and the planets aligned to
signify an important time for transformation and positive change.
So let’s delve into the world of Einstein, the world of an extraordinary dreamer and how judging with
a less than open mind can prove wrong, and the sheer determination to succeed can have different
meanings to different people, even when what you believe to be real may be laughed at. This article
also covers the subject of cooperation, where combined minds are necessary for any dream to be
realised, and how those same minds can be swayed when the goal posts are moved and
circumstance becomes a part of that. A combined belief in a project from dream stage to realisation
is necessary, but if one mind cannot be swayed by greed and stands wholeheartedly by the
understanding of the dream and one’s own integrity, it is then that the true nature of one’s purpose
in life is revealed. It is then that we are witness to the unshakeable faith of one’s own self-belief and
destiny as it unfolds.

3. This article will end by touching on the basis of morality, integrity and human greed - Including the
abuse of knowledge one can use at the cost of lives simply for the glory and recognition of their own.
It also highlights once again, that when a dream belongs to one being, and that dream was always
theirs to begin with, no matter what happens circumstantially, no matter what obstacles are met, it
will always be returned to its rightful owner in the end – one way or another.
As we all know, Einstein was most famous for the equation E=Mc2 (Energy can become matter and
matter can become energy). Have you ever asked the question, “What makes the stars sparkle?”
Almost seems childlike doesn’t it! Well the equation above is your answer!
Einstein is a great example of a typical Piscean - from his constant struggles in life and being
misunderstood, all the way through to his mode of thinking via daydreaming and the need for
seclusion - not forgetting his dogged determination to give birth to his out of the box theories.
(Pisceans do not give up easily, so never tell us we can’t when our motto is, I BELIEVE). Einstein’s
determination was not fed by wanting to become a millionaire, and not because he wanted to
become famous or be proven correct, but simply because he wanted to do what he was born to do.
He understood that our one and only purpose on this earth is to create! Einstein wanted to create,
to know the how and why answers to all of the questions that flooded his mind – incredibly
important answers that once proved, would benefit ALL of mankind. He was also a man confused by
love. The only problem he found difficult to solve it seemed – another Piscean trait. For the purpose
of this article I will refrain from discussing matters of the heart (as that is another article in itself),
and stick to the man, his background, and his life changing contribution to science and the
understanding of the universe as we know it.
Albert Einstein was always thinking in pictures, visualising all things and all at once.
He once said. “I want to know Gods thoughts in a mathematical way.” His life’s goal was to create
an equation, a single, short equation that would encapsulate all physical laws - the power and the
beauty of the universe itself.
After graduating from college, Einstein couldn’t get a job, and his professors thought very little, if
anything of him because he skipped classes all of the time. He thought about selling insurance. Can
you imagine opening the door to Albert Einstein selling you an insurance policy? What a waste! He
thought he was a loser! He even wrote a letter to his family saying maybe it would have been better
if perhaps he had never been born. He was tormented by the way he was seen by others, and with
that, had a tendency to believe it! Einstein moved from town to town taking jobs where he could
find them, mostly being rejected. His father passed away believing Albert was a total disgrace to the

4. family leaving Einstein feeling very depressed. A friend managed to get him a job as a clerk in a
patent office where for six days a week he sat at a desk reviewing patents submitted by all kinds of
inventors. His job was to strip the calculation down to the essence. It honed his skills, and because it
was not demanding work for him, it gave him ample time to sit and contemplate the universe. His
own theory of relativity (which he came to realise while sitting on a bus), was now playing out before
him - and whatever his theory on “space time” was, it was moving slowly for him at the patent
office. He submitted theoretical paper after paper to the physics community and hoped for the best
- but the best never came. (I know how that feels). Five or more months passed, and the only
response he received was SILENCE! Again he became very depressed. Then something happened!
Einstein’s papers fell into the hands of perhaps the ONE man who could fully understand him.
Max Planck – The greatest physicist in Europe and editor of - Annalen Der Physik, the most
important physics journal of that time, recognised immediately that what he was reading was
important. Yet two more years pass! Einstein decides to take on the two hundred and fifty year old
theory of gravity and Isaac Newton himself, and in doing so, he literally “upset the Newton apple
cart.” To do this he went back to what you and I would call “daydreaming.” Einstein named it his
“thought experiment.” He gets to call it that because, well he’s Einstein.
He was staring out of the window of his office one day and saw a man who was working on the roof
of the building opposite. He began to imagine what would happen if that man was to fall off the
roof? Then he had the happiest thought of his life. He visioned the man not feeling his own weight,
therefore he would be weight’less. He realised that it was not about the gravitational pull at all. It
was about space, and it was “space” that was pushing the man from above. Wait …what? That’s just
crazy; Newton had already said that it is gravity that is pulling this man, that’s how the “NEWTON
apple” fell from the tree right? Wrong! In fact, there is no such thing as gravitational pull! If proved,
Einstein would never be believed according to Max Planck. But Einstein was right, he realised that
space was actually malleable, and the best way to explain this, where it’s even able to be imagined in
our mind is, by taking the sun and the earth as an example.
Space itself can be curved! (Scratching of head kind of stuff I know).
So why does the earth go around the sun? Most people would say, “Well the suns gravity is yanking
the earth toward the sun in a circle.” Wrong! Earth is going around the sun because the sun has
warped the space around the earth, and space is pushing the earth toward the sun, which meant;
Einstein not only had a new theory of gravity, but a new theory of the universe itself!

5. The patent clerk is finally heard and becomes “Professor” Albert Einstein, right about the time that
he is also working on atoms. He makes a big impression! He was friendly; he was funny and smart –
really smart. But his theory had still to be proven, and until then, it was nothing more than that.
Of course he daydreamed; in fact he did so for another four frustrating years. His theory of relativity
was too complex to understand, and it became more science-fiction than actual science to those
who believed it could never be proved. Then one day it came to him. Light bulb! Well actually it was
just light itself minus the bulb. If he could shine a beam of light through an area where space is
curved, then the beam of light will actually appear to bend, because light only knows straight lines!
Now here is where the really BIG thinking comes into play. He wants to use the sun to conduct the
experiment. WHAT? How can anyone shine a beam of light around the sun? Well you can’t! So he
looked at the stars next. He said that the light from a distant star that passes right next to the sun
would be bent. But the sun is too bright to witness that. So how can he prove this?
Einstein has another thought! When is the sun in the perfect situation to allow this? A total solar
eclipse! BINGO! But STILL this cannot be proved unless he has the proof in his hand. So, now he
needs someone to take a picture! Who do you turn to? You turn to the astronomers – the astro-
physicists. He publishes a paper to call out to the world of astronomers asking them to go out and
measure, go to an eclipse and observe, he says – but nothing happened! They were just too busy
apparently – even for Einstein. A young assistant in his early twenties who wanted to make a name
for himself and was working at an observatory in Berlin, answers the call. He thinks to himself, this is
my chance! So, he goes to his boss and says, “Look I’m collaborating with Einstein, and we need to
go to Russia to benefit fully from the next solar eclipse. Will you put the money up?” And his boss
replies, “no way.”
Einstein is furious! The determined young assistant goes beyond the European scientific
establishment and writes to the director of an observatory in San Jose, California who is part of a
small community living on a mountain. Their families all lived there - wives and children included and
were depending on each other for survival. For many years they had the largest refracting telescope
in the world, but most importantly it has William Wallace Campbell, a pioneer of eclipse
photography. So here’s this little pipsqueak twenty-something year old assistant who has gone
against the will of his boss, corresponding with a pioneer, asking him to go to Russia with him to help
prove this new theory of gravity. Campbell saw a fantastic opportunity for his observatory and
America - and seizes it.

6. Meanwhile the extremely well-groomed scientific community is conspiring to bring Einstein back to
Berlin on the request of the king of Germany to become part of a new institution. They needed
Einstein to put it on the map, and whatever it took they would need to make it happen. By this time,
Einstein had stopped brushing his hair and was no longer wearing socks; he is a far cry from the
suited and booted men standing before him. Still they make a great offer to him. Einstein did not
answer the offer. Instead he said, “Why don’t you go for a trip for the rest of the afternoon up the
mountain. I will meet you at the train station when you come back, and I will be carrying a bunch a
flowers. If the flowers are red, I’m coming to Germany, and if the flowers are white, sorry …and
thanks for coming.” Bewildered, they agree!
Did Einstein want to live with the pleasure of being so deeply sought after for a while? Maybe! But in
true Einstein fashion he simply had a difficult problem to solve, and he often took a long walk when
he did. They had offered him the greatest job imaginable. But would he accept?
The meeting at the train station had arrived, and was a dramatic moment! Einstein is there as
promised, and he is holding his flowers. The flowers are red!
The trip to Russia is on! Campbell and the young assistant travel by train with cumbersome
equipment on a long and treacherous journey, and the threat of a world war is looming! They split
up; the young assistant sets up in Crimea and Campbell in Kiev. On June 28th
1914, Franz Ferdinand
of Austria is assassinated and Germany declares war on Russia. Russian soldiers appear in the woods
where the young German assistant has set up camp, they ask for his papers and proceed to
confiscate his telescope and equipment. They arrest him immediately and tell him, “You are now a
prisoner of war.” Campbell experiences the same encounter in Kiev, but he is an American and is
neutral, so the Russians allow him to continue to observe the eclipse.
They had come a very long way, survived the fact that war broke out and CLOUDS ruin their plans.
Total failure! Campbell leaves for home a defeated man. Einstein, who is in Berlin, is shattered, and
the young assistant along with his team spends several months as prisoners in Russia. Not only was
Einstein’s theory slipping through his fingers, but due to the war all communication between the
scientific communities is lost overnight. All ties were cut!
Campbell began to work independently from the young assistant in Germany who he now views as
the enemy! Once united by science, now destroyed by patriotism. Einstein was beside himself with
what he was witnessing, most especially by the bizarre behaviour of some of his colleagues who
joined forces with the military and went eagerly looking for new ways in which to kill people, and kill
them more effectively. Fritz Haber being the worst! Haber was a brilliant chemist, a German born

7. converted Jew, and a close friend of Einstein – also one of the first to develop terrible weapons out
of the potential of science - Poison gas! Poison gas that was tested on troops in trenches – a great
success according to Haber as he stood watching five thousand men literally drown on dry land as
the gas turned to liquid in their lungs. He was promoted to captain that night, the same night his
wife committed suicide. Einstein called him pathological and grotesque. They were living on
different planets now. Haber was a Jew who was desperate to become a patriotic German. His
research went on to develop the Zyklon process used by the Nazis to kill millions including his own
parents and extended family, and all for the sake of recognition. Forced into exile following the war,
he died of a heart attack.
Einstein then realised there was life outside of physics. As a pacifist, he felt betrayed by the men he
once admired, and was disgusted by their greed and abuse of knowledge that was being fed by the
opportunities of war. He quickly became isolated from his colleagues because of his opposing views.
But it was this isolation that took Einstein back to his thoughts and to his theory of general relativity.
He focuses on the mathematical equations he first made, and found that his earlier calculation was
wrong! It would have discredited Einstein’s theory if he had publicised early. It was an embarrassing
but glorious discovery.
The three years that he had been urging astronomers to photograph an eclipse would have been
wasted anyway. Did all of these seemingly bad luck sequences of events make sure that what never
happened, actually “happened” for a reason? He had always seen his failed eclipse expeditions to be
set-backs; when in fact, they may have just saved his career.
Einstein retreats to the study in his tiny apartment and takes out his violin. He said that Mozart’s
music captured the universe, so playing the violin would help him think. Einstein had a prodigious
ability to sit and think. He would think for days, weeks …even years, working it all out in his mind
before putting pencil to paper, proving that the real power of genius is the force of will to make all
the mistakes necessary to get to the right answer.
After nearly a decade of work, Einstein’s theory of general relativity is still far from finished when he
is asked to present his work to some of the greatest minds at a gathering in Germany. Einstein is
frustrated and is becoming angry with it. It’s a terrible blow when something you have worked on for
so long is showing signs of never being solved. Einstein accepts another offer to discuss his theory at
a university, and sees it as a dress rehearsal before the one at the academy. While he is writing his
explanation on the chalkboard, in the audience is one of the greatest mathematicians of all time.
David Hilbert.

8. Hilbert is listening very carefully to Einstein and thinks to himself. “I can solve the problem, and do it
better.”
As we all know, when we have an idea, we are a little worried about someone taking hold of it and
claiming it as their own. Well this is exactly how this was about to play out. Hilbert begins to work on
it himself. He wants to get there before Einstein does – and so, the race was on!
Einstein’s calculations were based on the trajectory of Mercury, and even if I could explain this
(which I can’t), not in the way that it would be needed, it would be far too complicated; nonetheless,
he was victorious! Just in time for his presentation at the academy too. His speech was short! In a
nutshell, he describes how space and time tell matter and energy where to go, and matter and
energy tell space and time how to look. Nobody knows how much applause he received. But he still
couldn’t prove it. That would take a total solar eclipse, meaning Einstein would have to wait …again.
He needs photographs. And until he has them, it is still only a theory.
An exhausted Einstein falls ill. Unable to eat or sleep, he succumbs to a physical and mental
breakdown and retreats back to his small apartment in Berlin. His cousin and onetime lover Elsa,
comes to his aid and cares for him night and day. Meanwhile the fate of his theory lies in the hands
of astronomers.
In February 1916 Arthur Eddington, the head of the Cambridge observatory and known around the
world as one of the greatest minds in astronomy, is sent a paper - the paper is Einstein’s general
theory of relativity. He had never heard of it before now, in fact no one in England had, but he knew
immediately the significance of what he was looking at! Eddington was a religious man who refused
to fight the Germans by morally opposing the war as passionately as Einstein had in Berlin, and when
he asked to know more about this Einstein fellow, and found out that he too was a pacifist, he
immediately says. “We have to do something.” The war was not going to stop him either; he was on
a mission to prove that scientists could come together from behind enemy lines. He wanted to show
the world that an Englishman would stand up for a German.
However, the next eclipse could only be best observed in Washington, and no one in Europe would
be able to travel due to the war, which meant that the only person that could was Campbell. But
Campbell had been forced to abandon his state of the art equipment in Russia all those years before
when WWI first broke out. He has a total solar eclipse all to himself, and he could be the person to
prove Einstein’s theory but no equipment. He decides to take a risk using inferior equipment
knowing that he would never get an opportunity like this again.

9. He travels to Washington to prepare, and takes his entire family with him. Once again, the universe
seems uncooperative and is holding on to its secrets – it was Russia all over again. Then right at the
crucial time, just when they needed a clear sky …the clouds parted. Instantly Campbell begins taking
photographs of the spectacle. As the moon moved over the face of the sun there was a bright beam
of sunlight, a ring around the blackest black you will ever see. It was a jaw-dropping catch hold of
your breath kind of moment. Breathtakingly gorgeous! It was also the very first time that an
American newspaper mentions Einstein.
Campbell assigns his most trusted astronomer, Heber. D Curtis to prove or disprove Einstein’s
theory. Curtis found nothing unusual in his calculations based on the photographs, in other words –
Einstein could be WRONG! Campbell, driven by his need to be the “one,” and because of the risk he
took with the inferior equipment, asks Curtis to check again, and again. Meanwhile Europe is in
chaos! Three empires disintegrate within weeks of each other.
In the aftermath of the war, German scientists are still not allowed to travel, but Eddington is - and
he is planning a trip to Africa in May 1919 to photograph an eclipse. He believes in Einstein and
hopes to bring back proof of his theory. Back in California, Campbell is preparing to reveal his own
results. And the news is devastating. In two continents, the proof of Einstein’s theory hangs in the
balance.
After ten long weeks at sea, Eddington and his assistant arrive on the shores of West Africa. They
hack their way through the jungle, avoid poisonous snakes and the possibility of catching malaria is
extremely high. If that isn’t enough, now they have to build the telescope. On the day of the eclipse,
rain falls in sheets. Eddington is crushed! Suddenly …there is a gap in the clouds and he sees a black
moon! He begins taking photographs. Now remember, photographs back then meant inserting a
plate, aligning the telescope, taking the photo, quickly removing the plate and replacing it with
another. Time is ticking away, but Eddington knows that composure above all must remain. His
career was at stake if a mistake was made now. Eddington doesn’t care about the sky at this point;
he’s looking for that star.
On inspection of the plates, he was disappointed to find that the clouds had blocked out the stars.
The last few plates were all he had, which meant that he was going to be able to salvage something
at least. Here’s Eddington sitting on the jungle floor with a measuring machine examining the plates,
his discipline and focus is phenomenal - he couldn’t wait to get back to England – that would take
months, and he needed to know if he had succeeded or not.

10. Einstein was waiting anxiously! Eddington returns to Cambridge just as Campbell sails into London to
address the Royal Astronomical Society, a society that dates back to the times of Sir Isaac Newton,
and he carries with him the secret results of the expedition the year before. Campbell is the first to
speak, and he’s extremely nervous because there are a lot of emotions flying around about this test,
and a lot of reputations at stake also. He’s standing in front of all of his colleagues, and then finally –
Campbell announces his results. Einstein is WRONG!
Then the session takes a dramatic turn with the reading of a cable from Eddington. His preliminary
findings show the opposite! Eddington had more calculations to do and it would take a couple of
months, but here we have everyone in the society watching. Campbell says he’s wrong and the
British say, “Don’t know yet, but it looks as though he might be right.”
Campbell is really nervous now; he had just delivered the death blow to Einstein. He quickly cables
his colleagues in America who are getting ready to publish the results. It read: Delay publishing
Einstein results. Four months later on November 6th
1919, Eddington travels to London to address
the Astronomical Society with the results. People arrive from all over England. Eddington begins his
speech with a few words to the founder of the society who is depicted in a portrait hanging on the
wall above them.
“Forgive us Sir Isaac Newton; your universe has been overturned.”
In a “relatively” short amount of time – EVERBODY knows the name Albert Einstein. Beer was named
after him; mothers were even naming their children after him. But it wasn’t over yet! Due to the war
and the sudden fame surrounding Einstein (a German), the media (mostly the New York times),
began accusing Eddington of using the “peace” card and fudging the figures. Therefore the theory
wasn’t actually proven at all. Even scientists agreed! ANOTHER expedition would be required!
It was no longer a matter of science, but one of international reputation and personal reputation.
Campbell gets to work and checks the charts. He sees that the next best eclipse to photograph will
be in Australia in September 1922, more than two years away. And it turns out, that he will not be
the only one to take up the challenge this time.
In 1921, forty-two year old Albert Einstein has become science’s first superstar, fame that leaves him
feeling a disconnection from the reason behind it, and wondering if the world understands that this
form of attention holds no importance to him. He is taken on a world victory tour and people gather
in their masses to catch a glimpse of him – a theoretical physicist! Newspapers declare “Einstein is
coming,” Yet he is still being criticised.

11. Wallace Campbell decides to re-design his equipment and is more than prepared for the
competition. The competition is all but wiped out due to one technical problem or another, leaving
Campbell once again in the driving seat. Campbell’s photographs are perfect and show ninety-two
stars. More importantly, that what Einstein had predicted all those years before was RIGHT! He
finally did it! It is a proud, personal achievement for Campbell and a landmark moment for science.
It turned out, that not only was Einstein right, but he was also incredibly accurate. In fact it was
described as a painstaking and precisely measured accuracy. Finally – fifteen years after he had
proposed his radical theory of general relativity and upending more than two centuries of scientific
thought – Einstein is victorious and vindicated. Even nature agreed! Yes Einstein, that is a beautiful
theory - and you are right!
As the world recovers from a horrific war, it embraces a man with an obscure occupation of
theoretical physicist and turns him into a global icon – a pacifist saint with a halo of wild, unruly hair
and intensely gentle eyes. People on all sides of the Atlantic could not only celebrate him as a man of
peace, but somebody who through science, transcended the horrors of war. Campbell committed
suicide in California at the age of 76 by leaping to his death from a fourth-story window in San
Francisco.He was almost blind. Eddington died of cancer in a nursing home and Einstein died on 18th
April 1955 after refusing surgery for internal bleeding caused by the rupture of an abdominal aortic
aneurysm saying: "I want to go when I want. It is tasteless to prolong life artificially. I have done my
share, it is time to go. I will do it elegantly.”
“The emotional resonance he graced us with is a symbol of what humanity can do well, in the
context of what humanity can do so terribly.”
Alone in his study using only his mind and a pencil, Einstein has allowed us in our time to enjoy the
entire modern age of technology from satellites and telecommunications to laser beams. An age
opened up by the work of Albert Einstein. We have a lot to thank him for!
The man and his theories continue to this day to inspire and capture imagination - the man who rose
above criticism, poverty and war to become one of the greatest human figures in history. Infinite in
his own right!
“Imagination is more important than knowledge”
Happy Birthday Albert Einstein
©TraceyBrady2016