Special Issue & Supplement: Commemorating Albert Einstein

For every physicist in the world the year 1905 is of highest significance. So is for Annalen der Physik (AdP), the journal in which Albert Einstein published most of his seminal ideas including the famous work Über einen die Erzeugung und Verwandlung des Lichtes betreffenden heuristischen Gesichtspunkt (About an Heuristic Aspect Regarding the Generation and Transmutation of Light) from 1905.

The 100th anniversary of this memorable moment implied the obligation to celebrate his work and his impact on physics with a Special Issue in 2005. Eminent scientists related Einstein's contributions to the forefront of modern research, as for example: photons from cavities; Brownian motion and Brownian motors; special relativity and its geometry for beginners (an innovative didactic article); status and experimental verification of special and general relativity; the problem of the cosmological constant; entanglement of quantum spin states.

In addition, as a special service to the scientific community, AdP has published a Supplement of about 590 pages which is also available in book form. This Supplement, compiled by J. Renn (Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin) as guest editor, features four articles which examine Einstein's contributions from an historical point of view, as well as facsimiles of all 49 Einstein Annalen papers, published in the period 1901-1922.