Albert Einstein is probably the most important name that science has given in the last century.. Therefore, it is not strange that throughout his life he received all kinds of queries, some of them most peculiar, for example his opinion on the existence of other worlds beyond our own.
A few weeks ago, one of the few preserved documents in which Einstein answers the question about the existence of extraterrestrial life was auctioned in the United States. From his office in Princeton, on November 12, 1952, the famous German physicist gathered the patience to write a question from Albert K. Bender, an American obsessed with the UFO phenomenon as demonstrated by the fact that he defined himself as a ufologist. When Bender contacted Einstein, he had just founded the first International Flying Saucer Office, an entity with great international success but which suddenly closed its doors in 1953, the year in which he would claim that he was contacted by three men in black.
Added to this was the fact that the issue had begun to have a certain impact on American society thanks to the report that had appeared in the pages of “Life” magazine in April 1952. “Do we have visitors from space?” asked one of the most read publications in the United States at that time, one of the references for thousands of readers. throughout the entire country.
It was in this context that Einstein received the ufologist's consultation. The man who always proved to be curious about everything that science could contribute and give us, he did not want to know much about the subject. In the letter to Bender he limited himself to saying that “s“with no experience and only superficial knowledge in the field, I regret that I cannot fulfill your request.”
It was not the only time that Einstein spoke, at least by letter, about extraterrestrials. Four months before, another missive arrived at his office, in this case written by Louis A. Gardner, an evangelical minister. Some radars had detected something strange and unidentified flying over both the White House and the Pentagon. What did Einstein think of all that? This is what Gardner wanted to know and the father of the theory of relativity was, as expected, laconic: “Those people have seen something. “I don't know what it is and I'm not curious to know.” He never believed that story.