Time magazine chose well when it named Albert Einstein as the most influential person of the 20th century. As well as being a peerless scientist, he showed great wisdom and integrity – he was an outstanding humanitarian. One hundred years ago, he completed his theory of relativity, setting out a theory of gravity that would surpass Isaac Newton’s and which continues to shape our understanding of the universe today.
Einstein had emerged 10 years earlier, apparently from nowhere, to give the world’s leading scientists a series of physics lessons they would never forget. During his 20-year golden streak, ending in 1925, he did more than anyone else to reshape the understanding of space, time, energy, matter and gravity. He pioneered the crucial idea that symmetry is at the heart of fundamental laws of nature. He could be practically minded, too: with his Hungarian friend Leo Szilard, he came up with an innovative design for a fridge, which they patented in 1930.
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