By JUDY SIEGELEinstein 311(photo credit: .)
As the 131st anniversary of the birth of genius theoretical physicist Albert Einstein nears, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem – which inherited the rights to all his intellectual property and images – is preparing events for Israel and the world.People around the world who have any questions about the personal life, thoughts and scientific breakthroughs of the German-born Jewish scientist can ask a top HU expert about them and receive a prompt answer from now until March 22. His birthday is March 14.In his lifetime, Albert Einstein received thousands of letters from fans asking him questions on just about everything.Prof. Hanoch Gutfreund, a world-renowned expert on Einstein and a former HU president will be on hand. One need only sign up via Facebook at www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=366191460311 and send in a query, or e-mail the university at PRmedia@savion.huji.ac.il.Gutfreund will select the most interesting questions to answer (as Einstein would have answered them) in a video response on March 22. During the past year, he has delivered two free lectures about Einstein’s personal life to passengers on Israel Railways trips.In honor of the anniversary of his birth, the Israel government designated March 14 as National Science Day with a number of events, including the announcement of the winners of the Young Scientists Competition organized by Jerusalem’s Bloomfield Science Museum.On National Science Day, HU and Israel Railways will present three more on-board lectures on Einstein, this time delivered not only by Gutfreund but also by other experts.The train from Beersheba to Tel Aviv and going on to Haifa will offer lectures on Einstein’s contribution to humanity. In addition, some physics experiments will be performed on the train. Gutfreund will start his talk at 10:27 a.m. from the Central Beersheba station, and experiments will be offered at 11:15 a.m. on the same line.When the train leaves Tel Aviv University station towards Haifa at12:22, former HU rector Prof. Haim Rabinowitz will speak on otherscientific subjects, including his development of cherry tomatoes withProf. Nahum Keidar; such tomatoes will be handed out free on the train.The popular variety was developed to ripen slowly and satisfy foreignmarkets. In 1972, Rabinowitz and Keidar identified the geneticcombination for slowing down ripening of the tomatoes in addition toimproving odor, color and nutrition and the small rounded shape.
