100th Anniversary of E=mc^2

Starker_Kull writes "E=mc^2 was published as part of Einstein's theory of Special Relativity 100 years ago today." From the article: "In 1905, it was final proof of the genius and imagination of a young German-born scientist who had yet to land a university post. It seems so simple: three letters standing for energy, mass, and the speed of light, brought together with the tightness of a soundbite."

Tip of the iceberg

[the eric conspiracy]

1905 was the most productive year for any physicist since Isaac Newton's golden year of 1666. In 1905 not only did Einstein publish on Special Relativity, but also on Brownian Motion (thus finally providing irrefutable evidence of atoms) and laying grounding for the field of statistical mechanics, and the photoelectric effect (claiming the idea of the photon) and laying much of the foundation of quantum mechanics.

what should we think of this?

[museumpeace]

I see comments to the effect that much of the big breakthrough is behind us. But think of how the world looked to the nerds of 1905: There was "just a few little details" to be worked out about the atom, why for instance did it radiate and how. The universe was euclidian and straight lines, by god, were just straight. few doubted that you could, though it would be costly, know the exact position of everything and calculate the future positions. A nagging little absence of an aether, to wave for electromagnetic waves as water or air do for their waves. But mostly, we were pretty sure we had it all but figured out. Take heart nerds. We have ALWAYS percieved ourselves as being at that point on the great learning curve of omniscience and we probably always will...its a comfortable place to hang out.