Albert Einstein 1905 1916
The Star Voyagers 4
The understanding of a mechanical world in a Newtonian sense couldn't be any longer supported by the end of the 19th century. In 1905 Einstein published his famous papers about the quantum- and relativity theory and herewith established the main themes of modern physics. The implications of the quantum theory never made him happy. But he continued to study relativity until he had worked out his theory of gravity in 1916, which required a new conception of space and time. Not time is absolut, but speed of light! Experiments confirmed his theory in 1919 and Einstein won worldwide popularity. He, a pacifist by convicition, was the personified hope for a better future after the carnage of World War I. However, circumstances of the time demanded that he support the call for the construction of the atomic bomb.