It’s rare that a person gets a chance to overturn humanity’s conception of the universe.

This year, physicists, authors,cooperative computing projectsand evenchoreographersare commemorating his achievement.

That theory ultimately created a new conception of space, time and gravity.

“Relativity stretched our notions of space and time, but we still had space and time.

Einstein’s papers that year are neatly packaged resolutions to the physics problems of the day.

He launched them without the support–or hindrances–associated with being a typical young university researcher.

To a certain extent, Einstein was in the right field at the right time.

That doesn’t mean Einstein had it easy, though.

The word “quantum” refers to discrete packets of light–particles now called photons.

Einstein’s work helped show that light behaved both as particle and a wave.

But some phenomena don’t take well to the wave description.

One was the photoelectric effect, in which light shining on metal causes it to emit electrons.

“This was revolutionary.

Quantum physics didn’t even sit well with Einstein himself.

Molecules and atoms

The next two papers were easier for the physics community to swallow.

They validated the idea that matter was composed of atoms and of groups of atoms called molecules.

Though most scientists accepted the concept, there were significant holdouts.

“At that time, there were people who doubted the existence of molecules,” Stachel said.

His prediction proved to be not far from reality.

In June came the first paper, describing special relativity.

Rather, time passes differently for different clocks moving at different speeds.

The paper didn’t include the famed equation E=mc2, but it laid the groundwork, Stachel said.

Einstein’s relativity work wasn’t done with the debut of special relativity in 1905.

This quantum mechanical effect leads to wasted power and heating problems and now is a dominant concern.

Einstein’s 1905 papers did have some direct connections to today’s engineering work.

Experiments to prove Einstein’s theories are still active.

Einstein himself became skeptical of the prediction and even tried to disprove it, Stachel said.

It’s a measure of the scientist that his ideas are still at the forefront of physics.