The year that explained the universe

[dArKeR]

One hundred years ago this month, a paper written by an obscure clerk in the Swiss Patent Office in Berne was posted to the German journal, Annalen der Physik. Its thesis was simple: light, then reckoned to be propagated as a wave, was really a stream of individual particles. The views of the previous century's physicists were simply misguided, its author implied.

Thus, the prodigious talent of Albert Einstein announced itself, uncompromisingly, to the world. His study, "On a Heuristic Point of View about the Creation and Conversion of Light," though making little initial impact, went on to become the cornerstone of quantum mechanics and the unleashing of atomic energy. Pretty good for a month's spare-time work.

Then came April, and another paper. This time, Einstein used analyses of solutions of sugar to calculate the size of their molecules (about a 10-millionth of a centimeter in radius, he reckoned -- more or less correctly). He submitted his paper for his Zurich University doctoral dissertation. It was rejected. Too short, said his examiners.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/edit/archives/2005/04/03/2003248943

[Vinnie From Indy]

1. Not a bad fiddle player either! n/t

[dave29]

2. I think perhaps Scientists should go on a jihad.

People still don't understand Relativity. But I guess that's not surprising considering people still don't understand Jesus.