World Year of Physics 2005

• 1. Introduction

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  The World Year of Physics 2005 was built on a single extraordinary year from a century before: 1905. It was also called Einstein Year. In 1905, Albert Einstein published four landmark papers during a period physicists call his Miracle Year. A century later, the World Congress of Physical Societies proposed a global response. The International Union of Pure and Applied Physics made it official. UNESCO subsequently endorsed it. The goal was twofold: to raise worldwide awareness of physics and to celebrate the major advances the field had made since 1905. Physics, the organizers noted, had become the foundation beneath much of modern technology. The year opened with a conference in mid-January in Paris, titled Physics for Tomorrow. What came next stretched from the streets of Berlin to the oldest library in the world.

• 2. The Einstein Mile and Beyond

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  Sixteen large red E's went up along Berlin's famous Unter den Linden boulevard in April 2005, staying in place until September. The installation was called the Einstein Mile. Each letter displayed information about Einstein's theories and life, turning one of Germany's most famous streets into an open-air exhibition.

  The University of Maryland sponsored several activities in cooperation with the Smithsonian Institution and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, including lecture series and resident programs. In Egypt, the Library of Alexandria organized the Einstein Symposium. San Marino marked the year by issuing a €2 commemorative coin. In the Czech Republic, Kirwitzer Day 2005 in the town of Kadaň was dedicated to Einstein's theories. The Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Ontario, hosted Einstein Fest from the 30th of September to the 23rd of October. CERN organized the Beyond Einstein World Wide Webcast on the 1st of December 2005. That broadcast brought the year's themes to any audience with an internet connection. Not all of the year's reach came through lectures or institutions. A scientist and a musician had been developing something quite different.

• 3. Einstein's Universe

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  Jack Liebeck was a violinist; Brian Foster was a physics professor at Oxford University. Together they created a joint presentation for the World Year of Physics. They called it Einstein's Universe. The presentation brought their two disciplines together for general audiences. What they built for a single anniversary year proved durable. Liebeck and Foster continued touring into the 2010s, keeping Einstein's Universe in circulation long past the year of its creation.