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     1905 was a huge year for Einstein. He published five papers in the German Yearbook of Physics, three or them groundbreaking. The first was on the motion of particles suspended in liquid. He developed a mathematical formula to explain that the visible motion of the particles was due to the invisible motion of the molecules of the liquid.

     His second paper was on the photoelectric effect, or the release of electrons from metal when light shines on it. Einstein used the very recent ideas of Max Planck to explain the phenomenon. That is, he explained it in terms of quanta, or packets of energy. This was the first use of the theory outside of Planck's own work. Einstein received the Nobel Prize in physics for this paper.

     Last and perhaps most famous, Einstein published his special theory of relativity. This resulted in the shocking conclusion that time is not constant. Neither is weight or mass. When moving at high speeds, all of these things get compressed; only the speed of light remains the same. That happens because, said Einstein, energy is equal to mass times the speed of light squared, or    

E = mc²

     In the following years, Einstein held positions at universities in Zurich, Prague, and Berlin. In 1914, Einstein was in Berlin where he kept grappling with the ideas of physics. There were problems with his special theory, and he knew it. The problems of gravity bothered him most. Whenever physicists worked out a natural law, gravity seemed to confuse it. In 1915, he wrote the general theory of relativity. It was extremely radical. To account for gravity, time and space must be curved around massive objects. The math was very complex and the whole idea so strange that most people didn't accept it. But Einstein suggested three ways it could be proven. One was to make observations of starlight during a solar eclipse. Conveniently, a solar eclipse occurred in 1919 and astronomers made the observations that proved the general theory of relativity. Einstein became a celebrity. Much of the world had just caught its breath after a long and horrifying war, and perhaps in relief, latched on to this amazing human achievement.

     In 1933 Einstein took a position at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton, where he remained for the rest of his life. Einstein's major contributions to physics were behind him. He debated quantum mechanics and the uncertainty principle with Niels Bohr, which helped Bohr clarify the concept, but it was a theory that Einstein never quite accepted. He spent his latter years in search of a unified field theory, or one basic equation to explain all of the forces of nature. 

     The ninety-ninth element in the periodic table was discovered shortly after Einstein's death in 1955, and it was named "einsteinium."

Albert Einstein
Physicist

BORN March 14, 1879, in Ulm, Germany

1902 Begins work at Swiss patent office

1955 Dies in his sleep on April 18