Einstein's miracle year - Larry Lagerstrom
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As the year 1905 began, Albert Einstein faced life as a “failed” academic. Yet within the next twelve months, he would publish four extraordinary papers, each on a different topic, that were destined to radically transform our understanding of the universe. Larry Lagerstrom details these four groundbreaking papers.
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Additional Resources for you to Explore
If you want to find out more about the trials and tribulations of the young Einstein and the triumph of his miracle year (including the fact that he also published a fifth significant paper that year!), see the profile “Young Einstein: From the Doxerl Affair to the Miracle Year,” by Larry Randles Lagerstrom.
Interested in learning more about the special theory of relativity? Why not take a free online course: “Understanding Einstein: The Special Theory of Relativity?” The course is currently not open for earning a certificate, but all the videos and learning resources are available to view for self-study. Get started, who knows what you may discover?
If you are on Twitter and are interested in receiving occasional tweets with quotes by Einstein and other great scientists, and notes on significant events in the history of science, follow @einsteinandpals. Or simply bookmark the “Einstein and Friends” website and check back occasionally. The “Einstein and friends/pals” theme comes from a remark Einstein made in his Autobiographical Notes about the lure of science to his young self: “Out yonder there was this huge world, which exists independently of us human beings and which stands before us like a great, eternal riddle, at least partially accessible to our inspection and thinking. The contemplation of this world beckoned like a liberation…. Similarly motivated thinkers of the present and past, as well as the insights which they had achieved, were the friends which could not be lost.” Want to know who Einstein’s friends were? Visit PBS and learn about the people in his life.
There are hundreds of books on Einstein. For a short list of some of the good ones visit this site.
Finally, historians of science and others interested in Einstein’s life and work have a fantastic resource in the Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, which includes his correspondence and scientific papers as well as explanatory essays by the editors. The first thirteen volumes (including English translations) are now online.
Interested in learning more about the special theory of relativity? Why not take a free online course: “Understanding Einstein: The Special Theory of Relativity?” The course is currently not open for earning a certificate, but all the videos and learning resources are available to view for self-study. Get started, who knows what you may discover?
If you are on Twitter and are interested in receiving occasional tweets with quotes by Einstein and other great scientists, and notes on significant events in the history of science, follow @einsteinandpals. Or simply bookmark the “Einstein and Friends” website and check back occasionally. The “Einstein and friends/pals” theme comes from a remark Einstein made in his Autobiographical Notes about the lure of science to his young self: “Out yonder there was this huge world, which exists independently of us human beings and which stands before us like a great, eternal riddle, at least partially accessible to our inspection and thinking. The contemplation of this world beckoned like a liberation…. Similarly motivated thinkers of the present and past, as well as the insights which they had achieved, were the friends which could not be lost.” Want to know who Einstein’s friends were? Visit PBS and learn about the people in his life.
There are hundreds of books on Einstein. For a short list of some of the good ones visit this site.
Finally, historians of science and others interested in Einstein’s life and work have a fantastic resource in the Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, which includes his correspondence and scientific papers as well as explanatory essays by the editors. The first thirteen volumes (including English translations) are now online.

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