Einsteins physics rewrite on display

There are pasted-on half pages,numerous cross-outs and insertions in meticulous penmanship and an open acknowledgment that some of the mathematics was beyond even him.

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There are pasted-on half pages,numerous cross-outs and insertions in meticulous penmanship and an open acknowledgment that some of the mathematics was beyond even him. Albert Einstein personally rewrote the laws of physics in a sparsely furnished Berlin apartment a century ago and the resulting manuscript,profoundly human and surprisingly moving to examine,has been put on display here for the first time.

Each of the 46 pages,laboured over between November 1915 and their publication in May 1916,has its own case,each lighted dimly in a room that has been darkened to protect the paper. There on Page 1 is the now familiar title in German: The Foundation of the General Theory of Relativity.

The display of the work,which forced a redefinition of gravity,predicted the existence of black holes and illuminated how galaxies are formed,is at the centre of the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities. Out of concern for the life of the documents,it will be up only for the next three weeks.

We have set it up like the Dead Sea Scrolls,to protect them but also to give the feeling of entering a kind of holy of holies,which is how we view it, said Hanoch Guttfreund,a physics professor,former president of the Hebrew University and curator of the exhibition. And you can actually see Einstein work as you look at the pages.

Einsteins wife Elsa donated the manuscript to the Hebrew University on the occasion of its opening in 1925 and in a letter he thanked her for doing so. A founder of the university and a member of its board,he donated all his papers to it upon his death.

And there,outside the room where the theory of general relatively is on display,are a few more of his papers,including a postcard he sent to his mother in 1919 after a British astronomer confirmed during an eclipse one of Einsteins key predictions.

Dear Mother! it begins,Today some happy news. Lorentz telegraphed me that the British expeditions have verified the deflection of light by the sun. So sorry, he adds,to hear that you are not feeling well.

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Einsteins relationship to Israel was complex. A self-described universalist,he became a Zionist when he witnessed anti-Semitism in Europe. Chaim Weizmann,Israels first President,was a key influence on him. Walter Isaacson,who wrote a 2007 biography of Einstein,said by telephone that Einstein wanted Jews to move here but did not back a separate Jewish nation-state until after it was declared in 1948.