They did, to an extent.

在某种程度上，他们做到了。

IQ is highly heritable, and that heritability is largely driven by genes (from 50% to more than 70% according to most estimates, some going as high as 90%).

智商是高度可遗传的，这种遗传性很大程度上是由基因驱动的(根据大多数估计，从50%到70%以上，有些甚至高达90%)。

However, there are a few things to take into account when you are talking about exceptionally intelligent people.

然而，当你谈论特别聪明的人时，有一些事情需要考虑。

First, you have the fact that Einstein's children, obviously, also have a mother, and therefore inherited their IQs from her as well. Now, Mileva Marić, Einstein's wife, was also pretty smart. In fact, she contributed to some of Einstein's work. But assuming she was less smart than Einstein, that would have been a factor driving the children's IQs down.

首先，爱因斯坦的孩子显然也有母亲，因此他们的智商也遗传自母亲。米列娃，爱因斯坦的妻子,也很聪明。事实上，她为爱因斯坦的一些工作做出了贡献。但如果假设她不如爱因斯坦聪明，这将是导致孩子智商下降的一个因素。

econdly, there is the concept of regression towards the mean. What this tells us is that if both your parents are exceptional in a certain respect, you will probably be exceptional in that respect as well but not as much as your parents. So if both your parents are geniuses, you might be just as smart as them, you might be even smarter than them, but more likely you will be pretty smart, but not quite as smart as them.

其次是回归均值的概念。这告诉我们，如果你的父母在某方面都很特别，你可能在这方面也很特别，但不如你的父母多。所以如果你的父母都是天才，你可能和他们一样聪明，你可能比他们更聪明，但更有可能你很聪明，但不像他们那么聪明。

Now on to Einstein's descendants.

现在来看爱因斯坦的后代。

The thing you have to understand is that the Einstein family has been plagued with health problems. You see, Einstein had three children:

你必须明白的是，爱因斯坦的家庭一直饱受健康问题的困扰。爱因斯坦有三个孩子：

Lieserl, who died in infancy (probably when she was one year old). Not much can be said about her intelligence obviously.

Lieserl，她在婴儿时期就去世了(大概在她一岁的时候)。关于她的聪明才智，显然没有什么可说的。

Eduard was a promising medical student, but then started developing schizophrenia. He was institutionalized for a large part of his life and the primitive treatment methods he was subjected to deeply affected his cognitive abilities.

爱德华是一名很有前途的医科学生，但后来他开始患上精神分裂症。他一生中有很大一部分时间是在精神病院度过的，他所受的原始治疗方法深深地影响了他的认知能力。

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Hans Albert Einstein

汉斯·阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦

Then you have Hans Albert Einstein. Hans Albert was a pretty brilliant scientist. He was a professor of hydraulic engineering at UC Berkeley and the world's foremost expert on sediment transport. That might not sound as impressive as his father's achievements, but that still makes him a pretty smart person.

然后是汉斯·阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦。汉斯·艾伯特是一位才华横溢的科学家。他是加州大学伯克利分校的水利工程学教授，也是世界上首屈一指的泥沙运输专家。这听起来可能不如他父亲的成就令人印象深刻，但这仍然使他成为一个相当聪明的人。

Hans Albert's children, again, had many of the health problems that characterized the first generation of Einstein descendants. You see, Hans Albert had four biological children, but only one of them, Bernhard Einstein, survived to adulthood.

汉斯·阿尔伯特的孩子们也有许多健康问题，这些问题是爱因斯坦第一代后代的特征。你看，汉斯·阿尔伯特有四个亲生孩子，但其中只有一个，伯恩哈德·爱因斯坦，活到成年。

Bernhard Einstein

伯恩哈德·爱因斯坦

Bernhard was a pretty smart guy. He became a physicist, worked in engineering for Texas Instruments and Litton Industries, and received half a dozen US patents in his life. That's pretty decent, but that's not quite as great an achievement as his grandfather's.

伯恩哈德是个很聪明的人。他成为了一名物理学家，在德州仪器和利顿工业公司从事工程工作，一生中获得了6项美国专利。这很不错，但这并没有他祖父的成就那么伟大。

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Bernhard had five children, but I was unable to find information on any of them. I assume they had lives similar to their father's: pretty successful by normal standards, pretty unsuccessful compared to their great-grandfather.

伯恩哈德有五个孩子，但我找不到任何关于他们的信息。我想他们的生活和他们的父亲相似：以正常标准来看，他们相当成功，与他们的曾祖父相比，他们并不成功。

Here's the thing: I have the IQs of none of these people, not even Einstein's, and I don't want to be judging their lives.

However, at least with regards to their scientific achievements, you could say that this is a good example of regression to the mean: from the greatest physicist in the world to the foremost expert in a relatively restricted scientific field to a pretty good engineer. That's what the Einstein lineage looks like.

事情是这样的：我没有这些人的智商值，甚至爱因斯坦也没有，我不想评判他们的生活。然而，至少就他们的科学成就而言，你可以说这是一个回归均值的好例子：从世界上最伟大的物理学家，到相对有限的科学领域的顶尖专家，再到相当优秀的工程师。这就是爱因斯坦谱系的样子。