What's the first thing that comes into your mind when you hear the word "Einstein"? Actually, for most people, two things. First of all, the image of a white-haired old man, with a wide moustache, loose hair and eyes that seem to reflect the mysteries of the universe. And then, of course, the words "theory of relativity".

The theory of relativity has completely changed out way of looking at the Universe, matter, space and time. It's amazing how just a few symbols hold the key to a whole new level of scientific understanding.

E=mc¥. This is by far the most famous formula in the history of mankind. Everybody knows it. They might not know its physical meaning, but almost the vast majority of Earth's population has come across it at least once in their lifetime.

And today, this theory celebrates its 100'th anniversary. Yes, a century has passed since a young patent clerk has published "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies", which at first might seem just another boring scientific paper. However, what laid within is the reason why now we're able to have nuclear power plants, nuclear bombs and "Star Trek". And, in order to mark this special event, the United Nations has declared 2005 the World Year of Physics.

But what does the theory say? Energy (E) equals mass (m) times the speed of light squared (c¥). In other words, energy and mass are actually two sides of the same thing. The equation says you can turn mass into energy and vice versa. The mass is multiplied by a very large number, the speed of light squared, and because of this multiplier effect, a small amount of mass can be converted into a large amount of energy.

Albert Einstein was born in 1879 to a middle-class family of German Jews. He had good grades in school, and went to high school and college in Switzerland, where he found the progressive schools more to his liking.

The great physicist began his career as an office clerk. After graduating from the Swiss Polytechnical Institute, Einstein took a full-time job as a low-level technical expert with the Swiss patent office, a job that left him enough free time to focus on his scientific endeavors.

During 1905, the Annus Mirabilis of physics, Einstein published a series of papers in the prestigious journal Annalen der Physik (Annals of Physics). Einstein biographers Michael White and John Gribbin have written that Einstein's achievements were especially impressive, considering he didn't yet have a doctorate, couldn't get even lowly academic jobs and was "totally isolated from the rest of the scientific community."

The three papers treated subjects as the light (the dual nature of light - wave and photons, a theory which brought him the Nobel Prize), atoms (a theory saying that heat is caused by the agitated motion of atoms, called Brownian motion, which Einstein supported with a very solid mathematical demonstration), and finally relativity.

Even though the formula has some inconsistencies, because it doesn't explain some phenomena as the Big Bang or the structure of subatomic matter, it has nevertheless opened a completely new path for the future of science.

And who knows, maybe the future generations of scientists will be able to improve Einstein's masterpiece, and someday, due to the work of that funny looking but brilliant old-man that we mentioned earlier, we might fly spaceships and turn Science-Fiction into reality.

For more information about Albert Einstein, his life and his work, please visit the following sites:
http://www.physics2005.org/
http://www.aip.org/history/einstein/
http://www.time.com/time/time100/poc/magazine/albert_einstein5a.html