Einstein's revelation goes on show

The original manuscript of Albert Einstein's groundbreaking theory of relativity, which helps explain everything from black holes to the Big Bang, went on display in its entirety for the first time yesterday.

Einstein’s 46-page handwritten explanation of his general theory of relativity, in which he demonstrates an expanding universe and shows how gravity can bend space and time, is being shown at the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Jerusalem as part of its 50th anniversary celebration.

“We wanted something unique that would have global significance, and fortunately we could have access to a manuscript that has never been seen in its entirety before,” said the academy’s president, Menahem Yaari.

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Einstein was one of the founders of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

He contributed the manuscript to the university when it was founded in 1925, four years after he was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics. His will bequeathed the rest of his papers to the university on his death in 1955.

The university is lending the manuscript to the academy for the anniversary celebration.

First published in 1916, the general theory of relativity remains a pivotal breakthrough in modern physics.

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Hanoch Gutfreund, former president of the Hebrew University and current chairman of its academic committee for the Albert Einstein Archives, said: “It changed our understanding of space, time, gravitation, and really the entire universe.

“I refer to it as the Magna Carta of physics. It’s the most important manuscript in the entire archives.”

Despite its central place in the canon of Einstein’s work, the original manuscript has never attracted as much attention as the man himself.

According to Gutfreund, museums around the world have been content to display only a few pages of the manuscript at a time, as part of larger features on the scientist’s personal and professional accomplishments.

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That is partly because the contents of the general theory, especially in the original German, remain a bit obscure for non scientists.

It took Einstein eight years after publishing his theory of special relativity – in which he came up with the equation E= MC2 – to expand that into his theory of general relativity, in which he showed that gravity can affect space and time, a key to understanding forces of physics and natural phenomena, including the origin of the universe.

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