Nov. 21, 1905: It Was a Very Good Year, If You Were Einstein
1905: The Annalen der Physik (Annals of Physics) publishes Albert Einstein’s paper, “Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy Content?” It is the last in a series known collectively as Einstein’s “annus mirabilis,” or “extraordinary year,” papers. Taken as a whole, they represent his basic theory of relativity and help form the basis of modern physics.
Einstein’s final 1905 paper (.pdf) solidifies his theory of special relativity (E = mc²), demonstrating that radiation converts mass to energy.
Work on these papers was completed while Einstein, then 26 and unable to land a teaching job, kicked around the Swiss Patent Office as a clerk. The year 1905 proved to be an extraordinary one, indeed, and effectively launched Einstein’s career. (“Annus mirabilis” was originally used in reference to Isaac Newton who, while devising his laws of motion, had a pretty good year himself in 1666.)
Einstein’s contemporaries quickly recognized they were dealing with a towering, if not always agreeable, intellect. They understood, perhaps better than anyone else, that here was a man who was changing the world. His tendency toward isolation, however, would hurt him later in his career, causing him to ignore other developments in theoretical physics and in some ways leaving him behind.
He was, however, a humanist at heart and his political consciousness continued evolving, formed by the horrors of the 20th century. A political refugee from Nazi Germany, Einstein eventually wound up in the United States where, despite his pacifist views, he urged development of the atomic bomb (mainly out of the fear that Germany would develop one first).
But Einstein disdained nationalism (a cultural Zionist, he was not thrilled by the prospect of an independent Jewish state), he championed civil rights and ran afoul of many in his adopted country by his open contempt for capitalism, which he dismissed as the “predatory phase of human development.”
None of which prevented Time magazine from selecting Einstein its “Person of the Century.”
(Source: Various)
Article published on Wired last November 21.
