The World Year of Physics: 2005

Exactly 100 years ago (on June 30, 1905), a 26-year-old patent clerk named Albert Einstein published an strange research paper about a principle he called relativity -- and gave us a whole new way to think about light, matter, energy, space and time.

That paper was just one of four revolutionary research papers that Einstein published in 1905. Taken together, those works laid the foundations for most of modern physics, in addition to microchips, lasers and other modern technologies.

To celebrate the centennial of relativity and to recognize the World Year of Physics, the National Science Foundation offers a new Source: Special Report about Einstein. This new Web site explains what Einstein actually did in 1905, and all that has come of it since then.

Image credit: Trent Schindler, National Science Foundation