Albert Einstein, one the greatest scientists of all times was born in Ulm, Germany on March 14, 1879. As a boy, Albert seemed slow to learn. He was 9 years old before he could speak fluently. At the age of 5, his father showed him a compass. Albert was very intrigued by the invisible force that kept the needle pointing north.
While attending Luitpold Gymnasium he became a skeptic and rebel, questioning opinions and the ways they were taught. Only his history teacher encouraged his independent spirit. He studied the Bible in search of truth but at the same time he began reading books about science and math.

His family moved to Italy, leaving young Albert in Germany to finish his school studies.
But within 6 months he was expelled for being disruptive in class, and he followed his family to Milan. Shortly afterwards he went to Switzerland where the Federal Institute of Technology would take any student who could pass the entrance exam even without a school certificate. He failed the exam but showed exceptional ability in math.
At 17, he finally passed the exam and started studying for a teacher's degree. he graduated in 1900 and the following year he was granted Swiss citizenship. In 1902 he became a clerk at the Swiss Patent Office where he had to examine and describe all sorts of models and technical plans. In his spare time he started to write and he began to publish his ideas in specialist journals. His name was still unknown but a circle of friends and admirers started to grow around him. The group gave themselves the name of the "Olympia Academy" and they were discussing science, music, philosophy and took long walks in the countryside.

Einstein's scientific breakthrough came in 1905 when he published five papers in the Annals of Physics. These papers earned him a further degree in physics. His papers were written in the language of higher mathematics and most people could not understand them.
In his famous Special Theory of Relativity he tackled motion and the speed of light. He explained how time passes at different rates for observers in different places depending on their relative movement. In a mathematical equation that completely changed the world he stated the equivalence of mass and energy: E=mc².

In 1916 Einstein published his General Theory of Relativity that was the result of ten years' work. This theory has been called the greatest single achievement of human thought.

After WWI Einstein toured many countries, including the US and campaigned vigorously for world peace. While he was visiting the US in 1933, Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party came to power in Germany and books by Einstein were banned and burned publicly. Einstein decided to settle in the US and he continued his scientific research at Princeton University. He also turned his mind to small inventions like developing an new camera and refrigerator. Soon, however his research would be linked with the most destructive invention of mankind-the atomic bomb.

The bomb was developed by a group of scientists who used Einstein's equation E=mc².
In 1939 Einstein wrote a letter to President Roosevelt warning him of the danger that Germany might develop the bomb first. The Manhattan Project to build the bomb came to life but Einstein was not involved. America entered the war in 1942 and used the bomb in Hiroshima and Nagasaki to persuade Japan to capitulate. In August 1945 the first atomic bomb killed 100,000 people instantly and many more died later from radiation.

For the rest of his life, Einstein called for world peace, international cooperation and the abolition of nuclear weapons. "The war is won, but the peace is not", he declared. His fame was legendary and he continued his scientific work until the day of his death on April 18, 1955.

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