Annus mirabilis
It happens only rarely that a scientist manages to develop several theories which revolutionise our concept of nature. It is even more rare that an individual scientist thinks out such fundamental new ideas in different fields that he deserves the Nobel Prize for each individual idea. It appears almost impossible that a 26-year-old could have managed both. It is absolutely incredible and all the more fascinating that Albert Einstein managed all this in a single year.
But this is exactly how it was. In Einstein’s year of wonders 1905, he published five essays at breathtaking speed – one of them his doctoral thesis. Two of these essays turn the whole of theoretical physics upside down.
The Latin term “annus mirabilis” is often used instead of “year of wonders”. For a long time this was the term used to describe the year 1666, when the legendary Isaac Newton established the foundations of modern physics.
On 17 March 1905, Einstein submits a paper on the radiation and energetic properties of light to one of the most renowned journals for theoretical physics, the “Annals of Physics”. In a letter to his friend Conrad Habicht, he writes that the paper is “very revolutionary”. And indeed Einstein throws the world of physics into turmoil because he shows that light possesses particle properties. He thus explains the Photoelectric Effect, which states that light can convert itself into electricity. In 1921 he earns the Nobel Prize for Physics for this work (awarded in 1922).
On 30 April 1905, Einstein completes his 21-page doctoral thesis. In it he combines two quite different theories: the classical theory on moving liquids and gases, and the theory on solutions in liquids. He is the first person to answer the burning question in the field of physics: do atoms really exist, and if so, how can one count them and determine their size? Today Einstein’s paper is one of the most fundamental and most quoted works in the field of physics.
Less than two weeks later, on 11 May 1905, the editors of the “Annals of Physics” receive Einstein’s next article. In this Einstein provides the first correct explanation for why, under the microscope, lifeless particles conduct fine random movements. This phenomenon is also known as the Brownian Molecular Movement.
By 30 June the postman has already delivered the next article to the editors of the “Annals of Physics”. This time it is on quite a different principle. It is about what we now call the “Special Theory of Relativity”. A further article on the Special Theory of Relativity follows on 27 September. This contains what is probably the most famous of all formulae: E = mc². And finally, on 19 December 1905, he expands on his ideas on the Brownian Molecular Movement.
The articles from the year of wonders 1905 document a unique series of ground-breaking ideas and discoveries from the world of physics. Einstein’s trailblazing thoughts deserve to be suitably honoured and celebrated 100 years after their original publication.
