Scientific American has covered Einstein's theories--and the refinements and reactions to them--ever since scientists began to grasp the import of his landmark 1905 papers. Read
on for a sampling of our reports, some by leading physicists of their times...
By Daniel C. Schlenoff
Everyday Einstein
Finding your way out of the woods with GPS? Hanging a picture frame with a laser level? Making photocopies? Better thank Einstein
By Philip Yam
The Search for Relativity Violations
To uncover evidence for an ultimate theory, scientists are looking for infractions of Einstein's once sacrosanct physical principle
By Alan Kostelecký
Atomic Spin-offs for the 21st Century
A new generation of technologies aims to put Einstein's theories to work in computers, hospitals--even submarines
By W. Wayt Gibbs
Was Einstein Right?
Unlike nearly all his contemporaries, Albert Einstein thought quantum mechanics would give way to a classical theory. Some researchers nowadays are inclined to agree
By George Musser
Einstein and Newton: Genius Compared
The two scientific giants were alike in intellect and temperament
By Alan Lightman
The String Theory Landscape
The theory of strings predicts that the universe might occupy one random "valley" out
of a virtually infinite selection of valleys in a vast landscape
of possibilities
By Raphael Bousso and Joseph Polchinski
Einstein's Compass
What was it about the magnetism of an iron bar that could divert Einstein from perfecting his celebrated theory of general relativity?
By Peter Galison
The Sciences
The Patent Clerk's Legacy
In 1905 the musings of a functionary in the Swiss patent office changed the world forever. His intellectual bequest remains for a new generation of physicists vying to concoct a theory of everything...
By Gary Stix
The Sciences
Forces of the World, Unite!
In a 1950 Scientific American article, Einstein outlined his unified theory of physics. Too bad it was wrong
By George Musser
A Cosmic Conundrum
A new incarnation of Einstein's cosmological constant may point the way beyond general relativity