How many atoms are there in the universe? If this number is larger than the amount of neurons that was in Albert Einstein's brain, then what is the point of ever truly understanding the universe?

Even though Einstein had a highly developed mind, it is highly unlikely that he could "truly understand" the universe in any scientific sense because there is simply too much to learn or discover in a lifetime. Instead, as a species, we discover and learn to improve the lives of future generations and thereby increase the corpus of human knowledge.

In fact, Einstein did leave us with a metaphor for the expanding body of knowledge held by humans: picture ourselves living in a world of darkness, and as we learn more, light expands out from our position, but the boundaries of that light remain dark, so we continue to learn more about the universe and uncover new and inventive things, thereby widening the circle of knowledge.

The problem is that as we learn more and make the circle bigger, we find more things that we don't understand; that is, as the circle's circumference grows, the radius also does. In other words, as we learn new things that we do understand, we find more things that we don't.

The estimated number of atoms in the observable universe is around 10^80. This number is vastly larger than the estimated number of neurons in Albert Einstein's brain, which is around 100 billion. Understanding the universe is valuable for expanding knowledge, advancing technology, and exploring the fundamental nature of reality, even though the scale of the universe may seem incomprehensibly vast.