Simplified for concise comment above, but translation taken from the article:

> (The term “einstein” comes from the German “ein stein,” or “one stone” — more loosely, “one tile” or “one shape.”)

I'm mostly reacting to the use of "Einstein" as a label, which I always dislike. The article seemed to hint at a reason for the pun/reference (Smith found a "one shape") but there no was justification for bringing Albert into the discussion.

...

Edit: In retrospect, there's another way to read the article headline. If you ignore the capital E (or forgive it because of German Noun capitalization Rules), you might argue that the "Elusive 'einstein' (tile) answers/resolves a longstanding question in tile geometry".

I think this would be too generous though. They did capitalize the E, and the verb makes more sense as a human action.

Might be the result of multiple edits. NYT headline telephone game.