INSTITUTE OF PHYSICS PUBLISHING

JOURNAL OF PHYSICS B: ATOMIC, MOLECULAR AND OPTICAL PHYSICS

J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys. 38 (2005) S437S448

doi:10.1088/0953-4075/38/9/001

1905a miraculous year

Jurgen Renn and Dieter Hoffmann
Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Wilhelm Street 44, 10117 Berlin, Germany E-mail: renn@mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de and dh@mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de

Received 15 February 2005 Published 25 April 2005 Online at stacks.iop.org/JPhysB/38/S437 Abstract The article discusses Einsteins famous papers of 1905his miraculous year and deals with their physical and historical context as well as their fundamental impact on modern physics. It shows that the papers are not isolated, but connected with each other by Einsteins deep-seated conviction of physical atomism and his criticism of an ether. They are concerned with specic problems that can be characterized as borderline problems since they go beyond the traditional divisions between mechanics, electrodynamics, and thermodynamics.

The year 1905 is generally considered Albert Einsteins annus mirabilis. It was not only a year of miracles for him personally, but it was also a miraculous year for the further development of physics. In this year, besides several book reviews, Einstein published ve papers that revolutionized the basic principles of physics. The titles of Einsteins papers were comparatively unspectacular: On a heuristic point of view concerning the production and transformation of light (completed 17 March, 1905); A new determination of molecular dimensions (30 April); On the movement of small particles suspended in liquids at rest required by the molecular kinetic theory of heat (11 May); On the electrodynamics of moving bodies (30 June); and Does the inertia of a body depend upon its energy content? (27 September), see gure 1. Every one of these works [1] had far-reaching consequences for a physical understanding of the world. Thus, the paper on electrodynamics contained the basics of Einsteins theory of special relativity, and laid the foundation for a new concept of space and time. This paper led him to the most famous physical formula, E = mc2. Einsteins work on the creation and transformation of light was based on Max Plancks theory of blackbody radiation, and asserted the existence of so-called light quanta. This meant that, contrary to the then well-established and highly successful electromagnetic wave theory, light possessed characteristics of particlesa bold and revolutionary hypothesis at the time. Ultimately, Einsteins study of Brownian motion was a major factor in the nal acceptance in physics of atomic theory, which was still controversial at the time. What was it that turned this 26-year-old examiner at the Swiss Patent Ofce in Bern, who, far from the leading physical research centres of the time, led more of a modest
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Figure 1. Facsimile of the title pages of Einsteins 1905 papers. From [16].

scientic existence (an outsider, and a loner as well), into the greatest revolutionary in the world of physics since Isaac Newton? The oft-used reference to the physical genius of Einstein romanticizes him more than it explains who he wasand not only because of todays inationary use of that term, which also places sports stars in the same category. Whoever deals with the myth of Einstein simply by referring to his genius is, not least, neglecting the

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Figure 2. Einstein at the Patent Ofce around 1906.

specic conditions for his insights and the circumstances of his life that allowed both Einsteins personality and his gift for physics to unfold. We will briey examine these factors below. Albert Einstein was born on March 14, 1879 in Ulm as the son of a Jewish family [2]. His father was at rst based in Munich, where the family moved in the summer of 1880. Later in 1894 they moved to northern Italy where they worked in the electrical industry. At the age of 16 Einstein followed his parents to Italy for a short time, after conict with the authoritarian German school system. He caught up on his diploma in the Swiss town of Aarau in 1896, and went from there to study physics and mathematics at the Federal Polytechnic Academy in Zurich (later called the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology). Although much of the Einstein literature insists on calling him a wayward pupil and an unsuccessful student, he was in actuality neither. But his behaviour did indicate a high level of individuality and independence from an early age. As a young man he was called an Einspaenner or loner, for whom reading physics textbooks was usually more important than going regularly to lectures. In the summer of 1900, Einstein succeeded in graduating with a Diploma as a Technical Instructor for Mathematics. Unfortunately, he could not at rst nd any regular employment, as applications for assistantships with his Zurich teacher Adolf Hurwitz as well as with Wilhelm Ostwald in Leipzig or Heike Kamerlingh-Onnes in Leiden were rejected [3]. Thus Einstein had to make do with work as a tutor and substitute teacher in various Swiss schools and boarding schools. In the summer of 1902 he managed at last, through the intercession of a friend, to nd a permanent position at the Swiss Patent Ofce in Bern. For the next seven years, he worked as a technical expert third class and then second class (see gure 2). But these years were inuenced

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not only by his occupation as an examiner, but by a series of extracurricular activities as well. After years of work, he received his doctorate from the University of Zurich in 1905 with his above-mentioned paper A new determination of molecular dimensions, and three years later he earned his qualication (Habilitation) to teach theoretical physics at Bern University. As early as 1901, he published his rst scientic paper in the then most reputable physics journal, the Annalen der Physik. A series of papers and above all an impressive variety of book reviews followed, proving that Einstein even at this time was a creative physicist and, most importantly, had accrued a good overview of the physics knowledge of his time. Letters to his friends, and above all his correspondence with his future wife Mileva [4] also make it clear that he followed the contemporary research developments in physics with great attention, and delved deeply into the basic questions of physics through the works of Paul Drude, Max Planck and other leading physicists of the time. Einsteins interests were also stimulated by the Akademie Olympia, a reading and discussion circle founded in 1903, where Einstein and his friends Maurice Solovine and Conrad Habicht studied important works from philosophy and epistemology, such as those of Spinoza, Hume, Kant, Mach, Poincar or Helmholtz. At these regular get-togethers, Einsteins e ideas were sharpened to lasting clarity; in addition, the foundations for lifelong friendships and cooperation were laid. In 1953, he wrote a letter to Maurice Solovine in remembrance of the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Akademie: To the immortal Akademie Olympia. In your brief and active time you gloated with childish joy over everything that was clear and sensible. Your members created you in order to make fun of your big, old and pompous sisters. And how well their aim succeeded, I have learned to truly appreciate after years of careful observation [5]. Besides the unconventional Akademie, there was the more traditional Bern Scientic Society, which also Einstein joined in 1903 and in which he would, in the following years, not only often rise to speak at meetings, but also gain a broad overview of contemporary scientic research. We must also include Michele Besso and Marcel Grossman in the young Einsteins intimate scientic network. The former was his colleague at the Patent Ofce, with whom he not only discussed borderline patent applications but also the problems of his dissertation, and from whom some important suggestions about the theory of relativity came. Meanwhile, he owed Grossmann thanks not only for many lecture notes from his student times in Zurich, but also for interceding to help him get his position at the Patent Ofce. This nally gave Einstein the economic security he needed to start a familyin January 1903 he married Mileva Maric in Bernas well as for his annus mirabilis. Later on, when Einstein was formulating his general theory of relativity, Grossmann gave his former college friend important scientic support. There were other factors behind Einsteins entry into science, which also beneted and supported his later revolutionary papers. He came from a family that was active in the electric industry. The company Einstein & Cie, for instance, brought electricity to Bavarian communities, manufactured dynamos and other electro-technical equipment, thereby bringing the young Einstein, as soon as he could walk, into contact with the challenges of the leading technology of his time. It was not just his family that was a source of intellectual challenge as Einstein grew upa poor student named Max Talmud, whom the Einsteins as part of Jewish tradition invited to dinner once a week, also introduced Einstein to the popular scientic literature of the time. Thus he read Aaron Bernsteins Popular Books on Physical Science and Alexander von Humboldts Kosmos with breathless suspense, receiving a solid overview of science that went far beyond what was being taught in schools at the time. This protected him from the

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blinkers of specialization, bringing him closer to the internationalist spirit of science as well as its worldview and political consequences. Above all, this reading sharpened his awareness of scientic puzzles and unresolved questions, characteristics that later were of great benet to his revolutionary work. The evidence that Einstein was occupied with original scientic problems even while in school comes from a paper written when he was 16 years old which dealt with the effect of a magnetic eld on the dispersion of light in ether, speculating about the ether and asking how a beam of light would look from the point of view of an observer also moving at the speed of light. These were the problems, the Gedankenexperimente or thought experiments, that would later be seen as precursors to Einsteins theory of relativity. The image of the young Einstein must also include his early fascinationwhich he shared with other great scientistswith the precision and beauty of mathematical thought. He taught himself the basics of geometry as well as important areas of higher mathematics. When Einstein graduated in the summer of 1900, there was no clear path for him to embark upon professionally. This did not keep him from working on his own scientic prole. His interests at the time centred on statistical physics, and in the years following he succeeded in independently formulating, at about the same time and without any knowledge of the work of the American physicist Josiah Willard Gibbs, the basic principles of this eld. This achievement resulted from an attempt to expand on the work of Ludwig Boltzmann to develop a kinetic theory of heat, in which among other things the electron theory of metals as well as radiation theory could be used. This parallel discovery of Einsteins would not have necessitated an annus mirabilis, as his work in the area of statistical physics would have been more than enough to launch an admirable career as a physicist. In fact, his rst revolutionary paper of March 1905 would actually have stood in the way of such a career at rst, as opposed to furthering it. Einsteins hypothesis of light quanta was, after all, a radical break with the traditions of optics and electrodynamics of the nineteenth century, standing in diametric opposition to the large amount of experimental as well as theoretical evidence that supported the electromagnetic wave theory of light. The fact that Einstein dared to advance this theory is related to his early work on statistical physics. This work attempted, e.g., to apply statistical mechanics to what was then the prevailing problem of thermal radiation in thermodynamic equilibrium. In the fall of 1900, Max Planck developed a formula that is still valid today for the dispersion of energy during thermal radiation based on the precise measurements of heat radiation from a blackbody taken at the Physikalisch-Technische Reichsanstalt in Berlin. However, the derivation of Plancks radiation law, which introduced his quantum of action h to physics, was highly problematic. Several physicists had already lodged protests, cf [6], and in the search for a physically satisfying derivation of Plancks radiation formula Einstein could show, the higher the energy density and wavelength of radiation, the more reasonable the theoretical foundations [of Plancks formula] we have been using prove to be: However, they fail completely in the case of low wavelengths and low radiation densities (in the area of validity of the so-called Wiens radiation formula- JR/DH) [7, Doc. 14]. Einstein especially alluded that the classical concept of electromagnetic radiation as vibrations in a continuum is irreconcilable with the assumption of thermal equilibrium. The number of wave frequencies in a continual ether would be innite, but the law of dynamic equilibrium states that every frequency must receive the same portion of energy. Thus Einstein discarded the idea of a continual ether and asserted that the problems of Maxwells theory in properly explaining electromagnetic radiation in a blackbody, i.e., radiation in thermal equilibrium, could be overcome through a heuristic viewpoint, if one assumes that the

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energy of light is discontinuously distributed in space. According to the assumption considered here, in the propagation of a light ray emitted from a point source, the energy is not distributed continuously over ever-increasing volumes of space, but consists of a nite number of energy quanta localized at points of space that move without dividing, and can be absorbed or generated only as complete units [7, Doc. 14]. Thus, the theory of light quanta was formulated, which not only made clear the principle irreconcilability between Plancks radiation formula and classical physics, but was also a theory with which Einstein could also explain for the rst time various anomalies in the electromagnetic theory of light. This was Stokes formula for uorescence, the ionization of gases through ultraviolet light, and most importantly Philipp Lenards discovery in 1902 of the (qualitative) connection that the energy of emitted electrons in the photoelectric effect is not dependent on the intensity of the light, but on its frequency [8]. For this correlation, Einstein rst formulated the well-known photoelectric equation: mv 2 /2 = hf P where m is electron mass, v is maximum velocity of the freed electrons, f is frequency of light, P is characteristic amount of work needed to free a single electron from a metal. Thus Einstein had found uses for Plancks quantum constant h outside of thermal radiation theory, thereby demonstrating its general signicance for the world of physics. But Planck himselflike most other physicistswas at rst unwilling to go along with Einsteins far-reaching conclusions. This was less because Einstein would have a long wait for a quantitative conrmation of his photoelectric formula, but most importantly because most physicists hoped to preserve the electromagnetic wave theory of light and, along with it, classical physics. In the end, Einsteins light quantum theory opened up a new, non-classical understanding of radiation and matter. In this sense it was not Planck, but Einstein with his 1905 work on light quanta, through whom the problem of thermal radiation became the crucial starting point for quantum theory, cf [6]. It was not only his light quantum theory, however, that made Einstein a central gure in this process. More importantly, the light quantum theory became the starting point for intensive research into the questions of quantum theory, which would make Einstein by far the most important pioneer in the early history of quantum theory and which would considerably support the insight that the development of this theory would be connected with a deeply signicant transformative effect on the foundations of classical physics. Thus in 1907 Einstein was able, using the quantum hypothesis, to lay the foundations for the rst non-classical theory of specic heat in solids. In 1909, while considering blackbody radiation, he introduced the idea of lights dual nature as both a wave and a particle, and in 1912 formulated the law of photochemical equivalence. Further milestones in Einsteins activities with quantum theory were a new derivation of Plancks radiation formula in 1916, in which the term transitional probability for spontaneous and induced emission and absorption of radiation was introduced, thereby laying the theoretical foundations for the invention of the laser. Finally, in 19241925 he developed BoseEinstein statistics, an equation describing the statistical distribution of certain types (todays so-called bosons) of identical particles in an ideal gas. His participation in the Solvay Conferences, which had taken place since 1911 (see gure 3), did much to promote acceptance of quantum theory; but in the 1920s his appearances at these summit meetings of leading contemporary physicists were increasingly characterized by determined opposition to the so-called Copenhagen Interpretation of quantum mechanics.

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Figure 3. The rst Solvay Conference, Brussels 1911.

He consistently rejected a statistical interpretation of quantum mechanics because of its putative incomplete description of physical reality. In discussions with Niels Bohr and other pioneers of modern quantum mechanics, Einstein always pointed out gaps in the theory and expressed his belief that all natural processes follow deterministic paths. His now-classic saying, formulated in a letter to his friend Max Born on 4 December, 1926, the old one . . . is not playing at dice [9], stands for this belief just as it does for his nal signicant contribution to quantum theory, the paper published in 1935 together with Boris Podolsky and Nathan Rosen, in which questions about the completeness of a quantum mechanical description of physical reality came to a head through the so-called EinsteinPodolskyRosen paradox [10]. Thus it was not only the young Einstein who rebelled against the physics establishment. Just how unconventional and strange Einsteins light quantum hypothesis was is made clear, for instance, by the fact that it had to struggle for recognition much longer than quantum theory itself. Up to the 1920s, it stood alone in the world of physics. Starting in 1914, the American physicist Robert Andrew Millikan conducted a long series of precision-measurement experiments in order to disprove Einsteins bold light quantum theory and his explanation of the photoelectric effect. Although Millikans measurements resulted rather quickly in a basic agreement between the theory and experimental reality, for a long while he only wanted to admit that this conrmation was nothing more than the quantitative conrmation of the photoelectric equivalence, especially since yet another precision method for determining Plancks active quantum had been found, thanks to his work. The light quantum hypothesis itself seemed to him fully unacceptable until the early 1920s. Even Max Planck himself, after all the father of quantum theory and one of Einsteins strongest supporters, who once called Einstein his most important discovery, said in 1913

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during a laudatory address for Einsteins election to membership in the Prussian Academy that Einsteins contributions to physics had been so great that the scientic world should not be too critical if he once in a while has shot past the mark, like for instance with his hypothesis about light quanta. . . . Because without the ability to take risks, even the most exact natural science cannot introduce any true advances [11]. It is an irony of the history of science that Einsteins light quantum theoryhis discovery of the law of the photoelectric effectwon him the Nobel Prize for physics in 1921. This had less to do with the scientic foresight of the selection committee than with the fact that Alfred Nobels testament specically preferred effects to theories, and Einsteins general theory of relativity seemed to be insufciently conrmed and in addition was considered highly controversial [12]. The nal turning point in the general acceptance of Einsteins light quanta and therefore the waveparticle dual nature of light was of course not provided by the Nobel Prize committee, but by the discovery of the Compton effect in 1922, and his convincing theoretical interpretation based on Einsteins light quantum hypothesis shortly afterwards [13]. Arnold Sommerfeld, who had witnessed this during a trip to America, wrote about it to Niels Bohr: The most interesting thing I experienced in terms of science in America was the work of Arthur Compton in St Louis. After this, the wave theory of x-rays will have to be abandoned [14]. After it became clear to Einstein in the spring of 1905 that the problem of thermal radiation in thermodynamic equilibrium not least made the concept of empty space insupportable, other ideas in this regard in which he had engaged for quite some time, especially relating to the electrodynamics of moving bodies, suddenly gained new signicance. Letters from the years between 1899 and 1903 show that Einstein was continually absorbed in these problems [4]. He drafted experiments to analyse the changes in the speed of light in a moving body or the relative movement of the earth through the ether. But in trying to bring his ideas into reality, he ran into insuperable problems that even with the intensive study of relevant textbooks and other scientic literature could not be overcome. Special attention was given to the work of the Dutch physicist Hendrik Antoon Lorentz on electrodynamics, which had climaxed in the well-known electron theory. This theory, based on the commonly held notion of a stationary ether, still managed to bring processes taking place in frames of reference in motion, with the help of auxiliary space and time coordinates, into agreement with the experience of systems at rest. This reduction held within it the seed of the so-called Lorentz transformations between moving frames of reference. Like Plancks derivation of his law of radiation, the derivation of Lorentzs theory from classical physics proved complicated and connected with problematic additional assumptions. Similarly to what he had done with his revolutionary work on light quanta, Einstein here cut the Gordian knot in that he came up with a completely new interpretation of Lorentzs transformation equations. From the perspective that Einstein had gained during his research, the building blocks of Lorentzs theory appeared in a new light. While for Einstein the ether, which was an important basis of Lorentzs work, had become questionable, Lorentzs conclusions about the relationship between electromagnetic measurements taken in moving frames of reference seemed, in contrast, quite reliable. These conclusions were in agreement with the postulate that in measuring electromagnetic and optical phenomena, it was impossible to tell the difference between a framework at rest and a framework moving at a uniform speed. Still, Lorentz had only been able to reach these conclusions, which had been proven by observation, with the help of additional assumptions. He had therefore to introduce an auxiliary variable for time

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into his description of physical processes in moving frameworks that was different from time in a system at rest. In addition, Lorentz assumed that the length of bodies is shortened in the direction of their movement through the etherthis was the only way to explain why the MichelsonMorley experiments had failed to detect any movement of the earth through the ether. The results of these deliberations added up to an expansion of the relativity principle already at the core of classical mechanics to electromagnetic and optical phenomena. Einstein had expected such an expansion since he rst considered a strange asymmetry in classical electrodynamics: the interaction between a magnet and a conductor moving towards each other was described differently depending on which was considered to be at rest, but the physical effectelectricity induced in the conductoris always the same. For Einstein, the success of Lorentzs electrodynamics was essentially a conrmation of the principle of relativity. But it was simpler not to embark on the difcult path Lorentz had adopted in order to see this conrmation, especially since his starting point of an etheric medium was, from Einsteins perspective, highly questionable. It seemed much more plausible to make the principle of relativity the starting point, thereby setting Lorentzs theory, so to speak, on its feet instead of its head. Einstein clearly hoped that his analogy of thermodynamics, which apart from its physical details was based on simple principles, would lead him to a theory that was independent of the composition of electromagnetic phenomena, i.e., whether they were waves or particles. Thus he searched for the solution to the problem of the electrodynamics of moving bodies on an entirely new and more profound level, whichsupported by his philosophical readings, especially in a discussion with his friend Michele Besso in May of 1905he ultimately found in kinematics: the doctrine of space and time. While new variables for time and length played a supporting role in Lorentzs theory, they took on fundamental signicance in Einsteins deliberations. It was a kind of Copernican turning point in the formation of basic principles. What consequences did Lorentzs electron theory have for the kinematic behaviour of bodies in motion? How would it be possible to determine whether systems in motion behaved in the way Lorentz had asserted? It was questions such as these that led Einstein to the problem of simultaneity in two systems moving with uniform velocity with respect to each other, thereby causing him to take the crucial step that would eventually solve this problem. In order to determine simultaneity he developed a method that was based on calibrating two clocks separated by distance through light signals. This method disclosed a certain amount of arbitrariness in the determination of simultaneity in systems moving towards each other, because the concept was at rst only dened in one frame of reference. This arbitrariness could be eliminated in two ways. One could assume that the determination of simultaneity with Einsteins method would lead to the same results regardless of motion of the framework; that would make it possible to conclude the validity of the concept of absolute time, which was the basis for conventional physics. Alternatively one could introduce the hypothesis that it was not time but the speed of light that would remain the same regardless of the motion within the framework. Einstein chose the latter hypothesis, despite counterintuitive consequences like the relativity of simultaneity. It allowed him to derive the main results of Lorentzs electrodynamics based on two simple principles, that of relativity and the non-classical principle of the constancy of the speed of light. This in turn made it possible for him to extend the scope of the principle of relativity from classical mechanics over the entirety of physics, whereby the classical Galileo transformations between frameworks in motion were replaced by Lorentz transformations. With its seemingly paradoxical consequences like shortening of length and time dilatation, or the so-called twin paradox, these transformations

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guaranteed that all inertial systems are physically equal, i.e., the laws of physics are retained in these transformations and the speed of light remains constant. In a supplementary paper Does the inertia of a body depend on the energy it contains? Einstein in the fall of 1905 derived another consequence of his theory of special relativity. In relation to this, he wrote to his friend Conrad Habicht: One other consequence of electrodynamic work has occurred to me. The principle of relativity in relation to Maxwells equations demands that mass is a direct measurement of the energy of a body; that light carries mass. A noticeable decrease in mass must then occur in the case of radium. The thought is funny and infectious; but whether God is laughing and has led me by the nose, I do not know [15]. As we know today, God was not leading Einstein by the nose at all, rather he was leading Einstein to the most famous physical equation of all time as well as to his scientic fame and popularity. Einsteins special relativity theory from 1905 received the form in which it is usually expressed today from Hermann Minkowski, Einsteins Zurich mathematics professor. In 1908, he gave it the form of four-dimensional spacetime geometry. This four-dimensional formulation tied in with the further development of the relativity theory by Max von Laue, Arnold Sommerfeld and other physicists, in whose frameworks more fundamental conceptual insights, like, for instance, the role of the four-dimensional energy impulse tensor, provided material for the understanding of inertia and eventually gravitation as well. Another breakthrough of Einsteins annus mirabilis was his analysis of Brownian motion. This work also has a hidden connection to the more famous relativity and quantum theory papers. It is rooted just as deeply as the others in Einsteins occupation with questions of statistical physics. While the controversy was still raging among physicists at the turn of the century about the legitimacy of assuming the existence of atoms in order to explain thermal phenomena (as well as other physical processes), Einstein turned the issue on its head and instead questioned whether classical thermodynamics could correctly describe the movement of particles suspended in uid. From the point of view of thermodynamics, such particles should behave like macroscopic bodies, which after a certain amount of time reach equilibrium. From the point of view of the kinetic theory of heat, these particles differ from real atoms in size only. When they are exposed to the buffeting of their smaller siblings, they should pick up on the thermal movement and thereforeas had, in fact, been observedbegin moving in random motion at a constant rate. The laws of mechanics were used to calculate the average rate of motion of the particles as related to their share of the thermal energy, but it became clear that it was impossible to reconcile the calculated rate of motion of the suspended particles with the observed rate. In his work on Brownian motion, Einstein analysed this phenomenon as a statistical process, a stochastic process. Thus Einstein used the strange, in-between world of uctuations, the best example of which is Brownian motion, to bridge the macrocosm of our everyday environment and the microcosm of atoms and molecules in order to make the latter more comprehensible. Brownian motion became the key to proving the existence of atomseven though their characteristics no longer t into the classical image of moving particles. Remarkably, it was Einsteins atomic interpretation of Brownian motion that was the rst to be understood and accepted. Its experimental verication, which was from 1908 advanced by the French physicist Jean Perrin, was an impressive and crucial conrmation of the atomic structure of matter, and contributed immensely to the nal acceptance of atomic theory in physics.

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Figure 4. Schematic for borderline problems.

(This gure is in colour only in the electronic version)

Einsteins essential conviction of atomic theory, which he gained at the very latest in his early student days, must also be seen as the connecting element in all his key works of 1905, because in all these works it played a crucial heuristic role. In this context, however, we can see yet another connective element among these works. Einsteins works during his annus mirabilis are all concerned with problems of a certain kind; they go beyond the divisions among mechanics, electrodynamics and thermodynamics, the three main areas of classical physics, and therefore can be characterized as borderline problems (see gure 4). Mechanics, the oldest discipline in physics, was long considered the basis upon which all physical phenomena could be explained. Besides mechanics, electrodynamics and thermodynamics had established themselves since the middle of the nineteenth century as relatively independent areas with their own theoretical foundations. Their reduction to mechanics was attempted, but this proved in the end to be both impossible and unnecessary. Instead, a whole series of problems emerged that affected at least two of the three domains of classical physics. The problem of thermal radiation in thermal equilibrium was just such a borderline problem between thermodynamics and electrodynamics, that of the electrodynamics of moving bodies bordered both electrodynamics and mechanics, and Brownian motion lay between thermodynamics and mechanics. It is no coincidence that the scientic revolution Einstein initiated in 1905 was sparked by just such borderline problems. Because these borderline problems were not isolated, they were, so to speak, problems that dealt with the overlap zones among the continents of classical physics, where highly integrated knowledge systems meet. Since this degree of integration came not least from model concepts like the notions of the ether and the atom, it is not surprising that the inner conceptual conicts of classical physics were replaced in these model concepts. Against this background we can understand how the seemingly specialized works of Einstein during his miraculous year of 1905 ultimately led to the elimination of the ether and the acceptance of the existence of atoms, and also led to the surprising conclusion that light is not a wave after all, but has a quantum nature. References
[1] For a documentary edition of the papers (with comments), see Stachel J et al (ed) 1989 Collected Papers of Albert Einstein (CPAE) vol 2 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press)

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[2] For Einsteins biography see F lsing A 1997 Albert EinsteinA Biography (New York: Viking) o [3] Stachel J (ed) 1987 Collected Papers of Albert Einstein (CPAE) vol 1 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press) pp 2889 [4] Renn J and Schulmann R 1992 Albert EinsteinMileva MaricThe Love Letters (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press) [5] Einstein A 1993 Letters to Solovine, 19061955 (New York: Citadel Press) p 142 [6] Kuhn T S 1978 Black-Body Theory and the Quantum Discontinuity 18941912 (Oxford: Clarendon) [7] Stachel J (ed) 1989 Collected Papers of Albert Einstein (CPAE) vol 2 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press) [8] Lenard P 1944 Wiss. Abh. Lpz. 3 251 ff [9] Einstein A, Born M and Born H 1971 The correspondence between Albert Einstein and Max Born and Hedwig Born from 1916 to 1955, with commentaries by Max Born The BornEinstein Letters (New York: Walker) p 88 [10] Einstein A, Podolsky B and Rosen N 1935 Can quantum-mechanical description of physical reality be considered complete? Phys. Rev. 47 77780 [11] Planck M 1975 Wahlvorschlag f r Albert Einstein, Berlin 12.6.1913 Physiker uber Physiker I ed C Kirsten and u H-G K rber (Berlin: Akademie) p 202 o [12] Friedman R M 2001 The Politics of Excellence: Behind the Nobel Prize in Science (New York: Freeman) p 119 ff [13] See Stuewer R 1975 The Compton Effect: Turning Point in Physics (New York: Science History Publications) [14] Eckert M and M rker K (ed) 2004 A Sommerfeld: Wissenschaftlicher Briefwechsel vol 2 (Berlin: Diepholz) a p 144 (A Sommerfeld to N Bohr, 21 January 1923) [15] Klein M J et al (ed) Collected Papers of Albert Einstein (CPAE) vol 5 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press) p 33 (A Einstein to C Habicht, Bern, June 1905) [16] Renn J (ed) 2005 Einsteins Annalen Papers (Weinheim: Wiley)