In 1905,at the age of 26 and four years before he was able to get a job as a professor of physics ,Einstein published five of the most important papers in the history of science---all written in his spare time .He prove that atoms and molecules existed .Before 1905,scientist weren’t sure about that . He argued that light came in little bits and thus laid the foundation for quantum mechanics .He described his theory of special relatively :space and time were threads in a common fabric ,he proposed ,which could be bent ,stretched and twisted .
Oh ,and by the way ,E=mc²
Before Einstein ,the last scientist who had such a creature outburst was Sir Isaac Newton .It happened in 1666 when Newton secluded himself at his mother’s farm to avoid an outbreak of plague at Cambridge .With nothing better to do ,he developed his Theory of Universal Gravitation.
For centuries historian called 1666 Newton’s “miracle year” Now those words have a different meaning :Einstein and 1905 .The United Nations has declared 2005“The world year of Physics ” to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Einstein’s “miracle year” .
Modern pop culture paints Einstein as a bushy-haired superthinker .His ideas ,we’re told ,were improbably far ahead of other scientists. He must have come from some other planet ------maybe the same one Newton grew up on.