1879年，爱因斯坦出生于德国乌尔姆的巴伐利亚市，17岁时，为逃避服兵役，他移居瑞士。从苏黎世联邦工业大学毕业后，他供职于瑞士联邦专利局，并在业余时间撰写科学论文。
In 1905， Einstein，s “miracle year”， he formulated his theory of relativity， an explanation of the relationship between time and space that challenged a view of the universe that had stood since the days of Sir Isaac Newton 200 years before.
1905年是爱因斯坦的“奇迹年”，他创立了阐释时空关系的相对论，挑战了物理学巨人艾萨克·牛顿始创的宇宙观，那些理论200年来一直固若磐石。
Einstein，s fame soared in 1919 after his theory was proven. He won a Nobel Prize in 1921， after which Germany and Switzerland both claimed him as theirs.
1919年，爱因斯坦的理论为科学家们所证实，一时他声名鹊起。1921年，他获得了诺贝尔物理学奖，随后德国和瑞士都争着说爱因斯坦是属于自己国家的。
But Einstein didn，t stop. His special theory also provided the basis for his most famous discovery， E=mc2， an equation that opened the door to the atomic age. The formula is known around the world even if few understand it.
但是爱因斯坦没有停滞不前。他的独特理论也给他最为着名的发现奠定了基础，那个发现就是E=mc2——一个打开原子时代大门的方程式。全世界都知道这个公式，虽然没多少人能真正理解它。
Einstein returned to Germany in 1914 and lived in Berlin for 19 years before fleeing Hitler，s Nazis in 1933. He took a post at Princeton University， and spent the rest of his life there.
1914年，爱因斯坦回到德国，随后在柏林居住了19年，直到1933年为躲避希特勒的纳粹军团的迫害而逃亡国外。他曾在美国普林斯顿大学执教，并在那里度过了晚年。
His house in Berlin was ransacked by the Nazis. Einstein gave up his German citizenship in 1932 and became a naturalised American citizen in 1940.
他在柏林的住宅曾遭纳粹党人洗劫。1932年，爱因斯坦放弃了德国国籍，并于1940年加入美国国籍，成为一名美国公民。
Machine Mad： Henry Ford
机械迷：亨利·福特
Growing up on a remote Michigan farm. Henry Ford knew little of all this - but he soon showed signs that he belonged to a new generation of Americans interested more in the industrial future than in the agricultural past. Like most pioneer farmers， his father， William， hoped that his eldest son would join him on the farm，enable it to expand， and eventually take it over. But Henry proved a disappointment. He hated farm work and did everything he could to avoid it . It was not that he was lazy. Far from it. Give him a mechanical job to do， from mending the hinges of a gate to sharpening tools， and he would set to work eagerly. It was the daily life of the farm， with its repetitive tasks， that frustrated him. “What a waste it is，” he was to write years later， remembering his work in the fields， “for a human being to spend hours and days behind a slowly moving team of houses.
亨利·福特虽然生长在偏远的密执安农场，但他对农事知之甚少——他很早便显露出新一代美国人的特点，比起农业的过去来，他们对工业的未来更感兴趣。他的父亲威廉姆，如同大多数早期的农场主一样，希望长子能随他务农，扩展农场并继承他的衣钵。而亨利令他感到失望。他厌恶农活并想方设法予以逃避。这并不是说他懒惰。绝对不是。倘若让他干点儿机械活，从修门的合叶到磨农具，他都很有干劲。使他感到沮丧的是农场的日常生活和单调重复和劳动。后来他在回忆他的这段农庄生活时写道：“一个人整天跟在一群慢腾腾的马后，这是多么大的浪费呀。”
Henry was excited by the possibilities for the future that were being opened up by developments in technology that could free farmers like his father from wasteful and boring toil. But these developments， in Henry，s boyhood， had touched farming hardly at all and farmers went on doing things in the way they had always done. Low profits， the uncertainties of the weather， and farmers， instinctive resistance to change prevented all but the richest and most farsighted farmers from taking advantage of the new age of machines.
亨利对技术发展可能开创的未来兴奋不已，这能使像他父亲一样的农夫从费时和枯燥的辛劳中解脱出来。但在亨利的童年，这些发展几乎根本触及不到农业，而农民们一直延续着由来已久的务农方式。收益低、变化无常的天气和农民们对改变现状的本能抵制都妨碍农民们（早富有和最有远见者除外）充分利用新型机械。