Commemorating Relativity

In 1921, Nature published a special issue celebrating Einstein's general theory of relativity, with contributions from Eddington, Weyl, Lorentz and Einstein himself, among many others. Nature Physics is making that special issue available online for the first time.

Einstein had published his general theory of relativity in 1915, a decade after the special theory. In 1919, observations of a solar eclipse — from expeditions led by Eddington and Dyson — offered some of the first evidence in support of the theory.

Einstein was awarded the 1921 Nobel Prize for physics — not, of course, for his theory of relativity, but for his work on the photoelectric effect. Publication of that work in 1905, with papers on special relativity and brownian motion, marked the annus mirabilis of the Swiss Patent Office clerk. The centenary is now celebrated in World Year of Physics 2005. (From Nature.com)