In 2005, astronomers and cosmologists celebrated – in style – the 100th anniversary of their annus mirabilis: 1905. This was the year in which Albert Einstein wrote a set of scientific papers, including one containing the equation E=mc2 that changed our understanding of the universe and became the cornerstones of quantum mechanics and general relativity – the twin intellectual pinnacles of the 20th century. Not bad for a 26-year-old patent office clerk.
You can therefore understand what all the fuss was about. Journals, biographies, exhibitions, even plays and operas, were produced to mark the centenary. Every utterance, every scrap of paper produced by the great man was examined and debated in 2005. Nothing, surely, could have been left out, you would have thought. Certainly, another telling of Einstein’s life story, only a couple of years later, must surely seem unnecessary and ambitious.
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