Happy Birthday Einstein

Today we commemorate the birthday of one of the most well renowned physicist of the 20th century. He is none other than Albert Einstein. who developed the general theory of relativity, one of the two pillars of modern physics (alongside quantum mechanics). Even though he is known for his mass–energy equivalence formula E = mc^2, which has been dubbed "the world's most famous equation", he received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics "for his services to theoretical physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect", which was pivotal in establishing quantum theory.

Near the beginning of his career, Einstein thought that Newtonian mechanics was no longer enough to reconcile the laws of classical mechanics with the laws of the electromagnetic field. This led to the development of his special theory of relativity.
He realized, however, that the principle of relativity could also be extended to gravitational fields, and with his subsequent theory of gravitation in 1916, he published a paper on the general theory of relativity. He continued to deal with problems of statistical mechanics and quantum theory, which led to his explanations of particle theory and the motion of molecules. He also investigated the thermal properties of light which laid the foundation of the photon theory of light. In 1917, Einstein applied the general theory of relativity to model the structure of the universe as a whole.



Apart from all that Einstein is also well known for:

• Zero-point energy: In 1913, he realized that (old) quantum mechanics generically forbids a precisely vanishing energy of the ground state.
• An explanation of capillary action, published in 1901 in the journal Annalen der Physik.
• Bose-Einstein statistics arising from his theory of mono-atomic gas in the 1920s.
• The infamous EPR paradox arising from Einstein's criticisms of quantum mechanics as a complete theory of the microscopic world around 1930.

Einstein published more than 300 scientific papers along with over 150 non-scientific works. His great intellectual achievements and originality have made the word "Einstein" synonymous with genius. Some awesome URLs you would like to go through are as follows: 

• An excellent documentary on Albert Einstein
• Works by Albert Einstein
• The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein: The Foundations of the General Theory of Relativity
• More Albert Einstein videos
• Einstein's Personal Correspondence: Religion, Politics, The Holocaust, and Philosophy
• The Einstein You Never Knew — slideshow by Life magazine 
• Einstein, Oppenheimer, Feynman: Physics in the 20th Century (Course from MIT OCW)
• Albert Einstein Archives Online (80,000+ Documents)
• Einstein@Home