Happy Birthday, Einstein!

On March 14, 1879, Albert Einstein is born, the son of a Jewish electrical engineer in Ulm, Germany. Einstein's theories of special and general relativity drastically altered man's view of the universe, and his work in particle and energy theory helped make possible quantum mechanics and, ultimately, the atomic bomb.

After a childhood in Germany and Italy, Einstein studied physics and mathematics at the Federal Polytechnic Academy in Zýrich, Switzerland. He became a Swiss citizen and in 1905 was awarded a Ph.D. from the University of Zýrich while working at the Swiss patent office in Bern. That year, which historians of Einstein's career call the annus mirabilis--the "miracle year"--he published five theoretical papers that were to have a profound effect on the development of modern physics.

Albert Einstein, one of the most creative minds in human history, died in Princeton in 1955.

A few of his more notable quotes...

"The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax."
"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one."
"Imagination is more important than knowledge."
"Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing."
"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."
"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."
"The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education."
"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe."
"Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts."