The quest to grasp gravity began long before Einstein. General relativity, once an exotic description of gravity, is now a powerful research tool. But in the century since, Einstein’s brainchild has become the nexus for a wide range of foundational issues, including the origin of the universe, the structure of black holes and the unification of nature’s forces, and the theory has also been harnessed for more applied tasks such as searching for extrasolar planets, determining the mass of distant galaxies and even guiding the trajectories of wayward car drivers and ballistic missiles. It culminated with Einstein’s radically new vision of the interplay of space, time, matter, energy and gravity, a feat widely revered as one of humankind’s greatest intellectual achievements.Īt the time, general relativity’s buzz was only heard by a coterie of thinkers on the outskirts of esoteric physics. The month leading up to the historic announcement had been the most intellectually intense and anxiety-ridden span of his life. The general theory of relativity, Einstein asserted, was now complete.

Days earlier, on November 25, 1915, he had taken to the stage at the Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin and declared that he had at last completed his agonizing, decade-long expedition to a new and deeper understanding of gravity. It was a hundred years ago this November, and Albert Einstein was enjoying a rare moment of contentment.

Albert einstein general relativity