I just got a response back from Walter Isaacson, the author of the hot-off-the-presses biography of Albert Einstein called Einstein: His Life and Universe. Mr. Isaacson’s opinion:
“Einstein may have said something about bees, but I don’t know about it if he did.”
Things aren’t looking good for the Einstein bee quote, y’all.
On another note, three respected news outlets included the Einstein quote without bothering to check with any Einstein experts on its validity: Der Speigel, The Telegraph, and The Independent. It took me literally five minutes to give Mr. Isaacson a chance to shoot it down. It’s just another case of people not doing their fact checking.
[Update 25 April:] Snopes is now on the case. I’m standing down.