The scientific touchstones① of the modern age—the Bomb， space travel， electronics， Quantum physics—all bear the imprint② of Einstein.
Einstein had conjured③ the whole business， it seemed. He did not invent the “thought experiment”， but he raised it to high art. Imagine twins， wearing identical watches； one stays home， while the other rides in a spaceship near the speed of light—little wonder that from 1919， Einstein was—and remains today—the world’s most famous scientist.
In his native Germany he became a target for hatred. As a Jew， a liberal， a humanist， an internationalist， he attracted the enmity of rationalist and anti-Semites. His was now a powerful voice， widely heard， and always attended to， especially after he moved to the US. He used it to promote Zionism④， pacifism， in his secret 1939 letter to Franklin D. Roosevelt， the construction of a uranium bomb.
Meanwhile， like any demigod⑤， he made bits of legend： that he failed math in school (not true). That he opened a book and found an check he had left as a bookmark (maybe he was absentminded⑥ about everyday affairs). That he was careless about socks， collars， and slippers. That he couldn’t even remember his address： 112 Mercer Street in Princeton， where he finally settled.
He died there in 1955 and after the rest of Einstein had been cremated， his brain remained， soaking for decades in a jar of formaldehyde belonging to Doctor Thomas Harvey. No one had bothered to dissect the brain of Freud， Stravinsky or Joyce， but in the 1980s， bits of Einsteinian gray matter were making the rounds of certain neurobiologists， who thus learned absolutely nothing. It was just a brain—the brain that dreamed a plastic fourth dimension， that banished⑦ the ether， that released the pins binding us to absolute space and time， that refused to believe God played dice.
In embracing Einstein， our century took leave of a prior universe and an erstwhile⑧ God. The new versions were not so rigid and deterministic as the Newtonian world. Einstein’s God was no clockmaker， but the embodiment of reason in nature. This God did not control our actions or even sit in judgment on them. This God seemed rather kindly and absentminded， as a matter of fact. Physics was free， and we too are free， in the Einstein universe where we live.
① touchstonen. 试金石，试验，标准
② imprintn. 印痕，痕迹
③ conjurev. 用魔法变出
④ zionismn. 犹太复国主义，犹太复国运动
⑤ demigodn. 英雄人物，受人崇拜的人
⑥ absentmindedadj. 心不在焉的，茫茫然的
⑦ banishv. 消除，排除
⑧ erstwhileadj. 从前的，往昔的
阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦
在当今时代，科学领域的种种丰碑——从原子弹、太空旅行、到电子学、量子物理等等这些，全部都印刻着爱因斯坦的痕迹。
似乎爱因斯坦使所有的事情都发生了神奇的改变。虽然他并没有发明什么“思想的实验”，但是他把它提升到了一个新的人文高度。我们想象一下一对双胞胎，他们带着相同的手表；一个呆在家里，可是另一个却在飞船中以近乎于光运动的速度遨游——无可置疑地，自从1919年起，到今天为止，爱因斯坦都是世界上最为著名的科学家。
在出生地德国，他成了仇恨的对象。作为一个犹太人，一个自由主义者、一个人道主义者、一个国际主义者，他招致了来自民族主义者和反犹太者的敌意。他那对现在有巨大影响力的声音，被广泛的传播着，而且总是很受关注，尤其是在他搬迁到了美国以后。他利用它去号召提倡以色列的犹太人复国主义，以及和平主义运动，并且他在1939年给罗斯福的秘密信函中，号召建造原子弹。
同时，同任何一个英雄人物一样，他制造出了很多的传闻。诸如像他在学校中数学考试不及格之类，（而这八成不是真的）；他打开了一本书，发现里面有一张未经兑现的支票，竟然被他当成是书签夹在里面（也许是他对每天日常的琐事总是心不在焉）；他并不在乎自己的袜子，领口和拖鞋；他甚至会记不起自己的住址：普林斯顿莫色尔大街112号，那是他最后定居之所。
1955年他于那里与世长辞，同时，在爱因斯坦身体的其他部分被火化以后，他的大脑就被保存起来，在一瓶甲醛中浸泡了了数十年，而现在这个则属于托马斯博士。没有人会不遗余力地去解剖弗洛伊德、史特拉文斯基或者是乔西斯的大脑，但是，在80年代，爱因斯坦的一些灰质却令许多的神经生物学家费尽心力，然而最后却仍旧一无所获。那仅仅是一个大脑而已——这个大脑梦想出了一个有弹性的第四维度，它推翻了以太学说，将我们从绝对时空的禁锢之中解放出来，而且它拒绝相信上帝在玩骰子。
因为爱因斯坦，我们的世纪才会告别了原有的宇宙和上帝的那个时代。新的宇宙和上帝不再像牛顿所居的世界那样，那么呆板、决断。爱因斯坦的上帝不是钟表匠，而是自然定律的化身。这个上帝不会控制我们的行为，更不对其加以判决。这个上帝看上去有些和善，但是实际上，却心不在焉。居住在爱因斯坦的这个宇宙中，物理学自由了，我们也变得无拘无束。