German-born Albert Einstein is widely hailed as one of the greatest minds of the 20th Century. His theory on relativity, first introduced in 1905, is one of the building blocks of that formidable reputation.

Einstein received his Ph.D. from the University of Zurich in 1905, the same year he published a landmark scientific paper spelling out the theory of relativity and his famous equation E=mc2 -- energy equals mass times the velocity of light squared. That theory became the basis of nuclear technology and the development of the atomic bomb.

Einstein himself was no great fan of atomic power used as a weapon. "The next world war," he mused after the nuclear end of World War II, "will be fought with stones."