Column Physics

Einstein’s letters illuminate a mind grappling with quantum mechanics

His correspondence also reveals that even a genius has his flaws

By Tom Siegfried

Contributing Correspondent

- More than 2 years ago

Albert Einstein

During the mid-1920s, Einstein struggled to unify general relativity with electromagnetism, while attempting to make sense of quantum mechanics.

PictureLux/The Hollywood Archive/Alamy Stock Photo

Back in the days before the internet — with no e-mail, no texting, no Twitter — people wrote letters.