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Nearly 50 years after his death and a century after the then unknown physicist started challenging doctrine and stretching brains with his ideas, Albert Einstein remains not just scientifically relevant but a multipurpose icon as well. If anything, his stature has grown over the decades, fed by a steady stream of books, pop-culture references, and posthumous appearances in commercials and on T-shirts, coffee mugs, and most anything else that will sit still long enough to be stamped with a photo and a quote. But the more we see that image, the less we seem to know about the real Einstein and the work that made him famous. Thanks in large measure to an ambitious publishing effort, a much more nuanced view of the greatest scientist of the 20th century is taking shape. The Einstein Papers Project, now in its eighth volume, will ultimately publish some 14,000 original documents in a planned 25 volumes. Early drafts of famous papers are allowing historians to track the development of his ideas (he didn't pluck them fully formed from the cosmos after all) and his voluminous correspondence reveals a real human being. As a powerful new exhibition at the American Museum of Natural History in New York shows, the Einstein that emerges is at once darker, richer, and infinitely more fascinating than the friendly icon we thought we knew. Einstein himself attributed his success to a slow start. "A normal adult never stops to think about problems of space and time," he once wrote. "But my intellectual development was retarded, as a result of which I began to wonder about space and time only when I had grown up." According to family tradition, recorded by Albert's sister Maja in an unpublished biography, her brother was unusual from the start. Though he showed a remarkable ability to focus on difficult tasks like building houses of cards, he was slow to develop and didn't start speaking until at least the age of 2 1/2. INSET: The Activist.

Discusses the efforts of the American Museum of Natural History in New York to assemble a universal tree of life to classify life on Earth. Taxonomy used by Charles Darwin; Importance of cross-species comparisons; Place of bacteria, eucarya, archaea and other types of life on the model; Practical uses of the model. INSET: Searching for roots.

Discusses plans for the development of brownfields, tracts of land formerly used by industry in the United States. How engineers can remove contaminants; Plan to develop the Fresh Kills landfill in New York City.

Analyzes the physical effects of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States at New York City's World Trade Center. Details of the damages; The challenges which lie beneath the fallen complex, including collapsed subway stations and tunnels; Concerns over the stability of a defensive perimeter around the World Trade Center's basements; Question of what to do after the debris is cleared.

Reports the late August 1999 incidence of E. coli infections resulting from drinking water contamination at the Washington County Fair in New York State. Number of people affected; Deaths; Source of contamination.

Offers information on the controversy over Silicon Alley, the name given to the technological section of New York City. Why one software association board member claims the name tries to imitate Silicon Valley in California; Observation that there are no silicon chip makers in New York City; Comments about the name.

Focuses on Michael Laudor and the mental illness that allegedly caused him to murder his fiancee Caroline Costello. Laudor's battle with schizophrenia; Background on Laudor who was a graduate of Yale Law School in New York; Deals for an autobiographical book and a feature film; Stress that might have contributed to a relapse; Possibility that he stopped taking the medication, risperidone. INSET: A few warning signs.