愛因斯坦癖好大公開：狂愛吃雞蛋

Albert Einstein is perhaps the world's greatest scientist. The Nobel Prize winner, who solved the riddle of the photoelectric effect and proposed the general theory of relativity, died on April 18, 1955, aged 76 after laying the foundation of modern physics and changing mankind's views on space, time, mass, and energy. But did you know he was obsessed by fried eggs? That's one of 10 quirky things about the man behind the famous equation E = mc 2 that we learn from the bookEinstein at Home, which will be published in English in May 2016 for the first time. The book contains five interviews conducted by scientist Friedrich Herneck with Herta Waldow, née Schiefelbein, who was the live-in housekeeper of Einstein in the Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf district of Berlin for six years.

阿爾伯特•愛因斯坦可能是世界上最偉大的科學(xué)家。他是諾貝爾獎(jiǎng)得主，破解了光電效應(yīng)的謎題，提出了廣義相對(duì)論，奠定了現(xiàn)代物理學(xué)的基礎(chǔ)，改變了人類對(duì)空間、時(shí)間、質(zhì)量和能量的認(rèn)識(shí)。他于1955年4月18日逝世，享年76歲。但是，你知道他對(duì)煎蛋非常癡迷嗎?我們也是從《愛因斯坦的家庭生活》這本書知道的。這個(gè)提出著名等式E = mc 2的科學(xué)家有10個(gè)癖好，都收錄在這本書中。此書的英文版將于2016年5月第一次出版。書中還收錄了科學(xué)家弗里德里希•赫爾內(nèi)克對(duì)赫塔•沃爾多(娘家姓席費(fèi)爾拜因)女士的五次采訪，沃爾多女士曾經(jīng)在愛因斯坦位于柏林夏洛滕堡-威爾默斯多夫區(qū)的家中當(dāng)了六年的住家管家。

下面，我們就來(lái)看看這本書中揭秘的愛因斯坦的那些“怪癖”。

The mad hair came on the cheap

凌亂的頭發(fā)是省錢省出來(lái)的

Einstein's second wife was his cousin Elsa Loewenthal. Elsa could not persuade Einstein to pay for a barber so she would cut his hair herself. Waldow recalled: "When his hair was too long, when it was beyond the pale, Elsa would cut off his hair with scissors and he was willing to put up with it. As well as his disheveled hair, Elsa also trimmed the great scientist's moustache.

愛因斯坦的第二任妻子是他的堂姐艾爾莎•洛文塔爾。艾爾莎沒法勸服愛因斯坦，讓他花錢找理發(fā)師理發(fā)，只能自己給他剪。沃爾多回憶說(shuō)：“當(dāng)他的頭發(fā)長(zhǎng)得太長(zhǎng)，長(zhǎng)得讓人無(wú)法忍受時(shí)，艾爾莎就會(huì)拿剪子給他剪頭發(fā)，他也愿意讓她這么剪。除了修剪凌亂的頭發(fā)，艾爾莎還會(huì)給這個(gè)大科學(xué)家刮胡子。

He made his shoes last

他的鞋壽命很長(zhǎng)

Penny-pinching seems to have been a thing in the Einstein household - a seven-room apartment. Waldow, who was the housekeeper from 1927-1933, said that he was always short of cash and his wife was very penny pinching. He wore shoes with holes in them, even if they were no longer watertight. "He would wear them until it was no longer possible." She said his favourite footwear was sandals. No wonder he kept a sign up in his office in later life in Princeton that said: "Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts."

愛因斯坦住的公寓有七間屋子，節(jié)儉似乎是他家的主題。沃爾多在1927-1933年間在這里當(dāng)管家，她說(shuō)愛因斯坦手頭總是很緊，他的妻子也非常節(jié)儉。他的鞋有破洞了，甚至都不防水了，他還在穿。“他要把它們穿到實(shí)在穿不了了為止。”她說(shuō)他最喜歡穿的鞋就是涼鞋。怪不得他晚年在普林斯頓大學(xué)的辦公室里掛著一句話：“不是所有有價(jià)值的都可以被計(jì)算，不是所有能計(jì)算的都有價(jià)值。”

He really was an egghead (especially fried eggs )

他真是雞蛋(特別是炒雞蛋)愛好者

Waldow had to deliver fried eggs and scrambled eggs almost every day for his breakfast. There were eggs for breakfast, usually fried. There was also a lot of honey, which we bought by the pail, brought by a beekeeper. "Herr Professor always ate fried eggs, at least two." They bought their fresh eggs from an elderly Jewish man. "Dear me, he was so grubby!" Waldow said. Einstein also enjoyed mushrooms with his eggs. "He would probably have eaten mushrooms three times a day, that's how fond he was of them."

沃爾多幾乎每天都給他送煎蛋和炒蛋當(dāng)早餐。早餐的雞蛋通常是煎的，里面還加了很多蜂蜜。蜂蜜是從一個(gè)養(yǎng)蜂人那里一桶一桶買來(lái)的。“教授先生總是吃煎蛋，一次至少吃兩個(gè)。”他們的鮮雞蛋是從一個(gè)老猶太人那里買的。“天吶，那個(gè)賣蜂蜜的可邋遢了!”沃爾多說(shuō)，愛因斯坦還喜歡在雞蛋里加蘑菇。“他幾乎一天吃三頓蘑菇，他就是這么喜歡。”

But he didn't want to eat 'bloody' steak

但他不吃“帶血的”牛排

He would only eat steak if it was very well done. He would always say: "I am not a tiger". Einstein didn't like having his private remarks published and later wrote, "it never occurred to me that every casual remark of mine would be snatched up and recorded. Otherwise I would have crept further into my shell."

牛排只有烤得非常熟他才會(huì)吃。他總是說(shuō)：“我又不是老虎。”愛因斯坦不喜歡他的個(gè)人言論被出版，后來(lái)他寫道：“我從來(lái)沒想過(guò)我每句不經(jīng)意的言論都會(huì)被捕捉并記錄下來(lái)。否則的話，我就會(huì)爬進(jìn)殼里安靜地待著了。”

And he hated English cooking

他討厭英式烹飪

Einstein visited England in 1933 but wasn't much impressed with our cuisine, saying of English cooking, "it's ghastly, they cook everything with mutton fat". But give him a strawberry and he was content. Einstein was "passionately fond of strawberries" - he liked a strawberry dish served with whipped cream, together with what he called "strawberry snow".

愛因斯坦1933年到訪過(guò)英國(guó)，但卻對(duì)那里的食物不怎么感興趣，他說(shuō)英式烹飪“可怕，所有的食物都是羊脂油做的”。但是給他一個(gè)草莓他就會(huì)很開心。愛因斯坦“狂熱地喜歡草莓”，他還喜歡草莓上加生奶油，他管這道菜叫“草莓積雪”。

He hardly drank alcohol

他不怎么喝酒

Einstein only drank caffeine-free coffee called Kaffee Haag and black tea. The inveterate pipe smoker didn't drink much alcohol but like celery punch. Just imagine, celery punch!

愛因斯坦只喝一種叫做Kaffee Haag的脫咖啡因咖啡和紅茶。老煙槍愛因斯坦不怎么喝酒，但喜歡喝芹菜汁。你能想象得到嗎?芹菜汁!

He had a toy telescope on his desk

他桌上有架小望遠(yuǎn)鏡

Waldow recalled that next to his desk Einstein kept a telescope for observing the stars. "It was a kind of school telescope mounted on a tripod," she said.

沃爾多回憶，愛因斯坦在桌子旁邊放了架望遠(yuǎn)鏡，用來(lái)看星星。“那是一個(gè)學(xué)生用的望遠(yuǎn)鏡，架在三腳架上，”她說(shuō)。

He loved playing the violin – but was terrible

他喜歡拉小提琴——但是拉得不好

Einstein liked to play the violin at night. He did not play pieces of music but "his own improvisations as he did his thinking to them". He played in the kitchen because he liked the way the tiles made the music resonate. Alas, he wasn't that good. Fellow scientist Professor Walter Frierich said of Einstein's playing that he "bowed like a lumberjack".

愛因斯坦喜歡在晚上拉小提琴。他不拉奏音樂作品，而是“他自己的即興創(chuàng)作，想到什么拉什么”。他在廚房里拉小提琴，因?yàn)樗矚g墻磚與音樂共鳴的聲音?？墒前。貌⒉缓?。科學(xué)家沃爾特•弗瑞爾里希說(shuō)愛因斯坦的演奏就像“伐木工人在鋸樹”。

Einstein was not a party animal

愛因斯坦不喜歡派對(duì)

He hated attending social events and "he often railed against it very angrily". He did sometimes have dinner parties and special nights in with stars such as Charlie Chaplin.

他討厭參加社交活動(dòng)，并且會(huì)“經(jīng)常非常生氣地抱怨”。不過(guò)他確實(shí)參加過(guò)幾次宴會(huì)，與查理•卓別林等明星度過(guò)了幾個(gè)特別的夜晚。

He liked to wander round starkers

他喜歡光著身子游蕩

"Herr professor just liked to look at beautiful women, he always had a weakness for lovely ladies," said Waldow. The woman he called Fraulein Herta was 21 when she first started working for the 48-year-old Einstein. Waldow remembered that she blushed when she saw him naked. "It was very embarrassing for me. Either Herr Professor had not bothered putting on his bathrobe, or he was too lost in thought to remember wearing it". Ah, the old absent-minded professor excuse.

沃爾多說(shuō)：“教授先生喜歡看漂亮的女人，對(duì)她們總是沒有抵抗力。”愛因斯坦48歲時(shí)雇傭了一個(gè)21歲的叫做赫塔的姑娘。沃爾多回憶稱，當(dāng)她看到愛因斯坦沒穿衣服的時(shí)候臉都紅了。“我那時(shí)很尷尬，教授先生要么是懶得穿浴袍，要么是沉迷于思考忘了穿。”啊哈，什么年紀(jì)大了心不在焉，都是借口。