The finding serves to underscore — again — the prodigious genius of Einstein, a theoretical physicist whose work fundamentally changed the way humans view and understand their world.

[Cosmic breakthrough: Physicists detect gravitational waves from violent black-hole merger]

The outlines of his life story are well known: He was born in Germany in 1879, worked as a patent clerk in Bern, Switzerland, starting in 1905, and in 1915 completed the earth-shattering General Theory of Relativity, which helped explain how space, time and gravity interact and propelled him into the scientific stratosphere. He immigrated to the United States in 1933 and spent the rest of his professional career at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J., remaining active in science as well as political and social issues until his death in 1955.

There are also commonly held aspects of his childhood and education that seem to conflict with the broad genius that he was. That he was a lazy child. That he was a bad student who flunked math. That he had a learning disability. How much of this is true?