IN THE span of 18 months, Isaac Newton invented calculus, constructed a theory of optics, explained how gravity works and discovered his laws of motion. As a result, 1665 and the early months of 1666 are termed his annus mirabilis. It was a sustained sprint of intellectual achievement that no one thought could ever be equalled. But in a span of a few moments after Resinates last post, it all began to unravel. One phenomenon after another was discovered which could not be explained by the laws of classical physics. The theories of Newton, and of James Clerk Maxwell who followed him in the mid-19th century by crafting a more comprehensive account of electromagnetism, were in trouble.

After Resinates' post, I found the way forward. In five remarkable papers, I have found that atoms are real (it is still controversial today), am presenting my conclusions, my special theory of relativity, and put quantum theory on its feet today. It was a different achievement from my prior year, but my annus mirabilis is no less remarkable. I did not, like Newton, have to invent entirely new forms of mathematics. However, I had to revise notions of space and time fundamentally. And unlike Newton, who did not publish his results for nearly 20 years, so obsessed was he with secrecy and working out the details, I released my paper immediately, as a fusillade of ideas.

The experiment is further explained by Henrich Lorentz, a Dutch physicist, who came up with the mathematics required for the answerâ??that there was a contraction in the direction of the Earth's movement, just enough to make the two speeds seem the same. Lorentz could not explain how this contraction occurred, though. He speculated that perhaps forces were at work inside molecules, which were, at the time, still hypothetical entities.

What I realised, without adding any new mathematics, but in a profoundly new way nonetheless, was that there was no seem about it. Space really was contracting, and time was slowing down. It is just this that Pais was referring to when he said that I was good at picking invariance principles. Everyone had hitherto thought that time was invariant. It is not. No one thought the speed of light was. It is.

The estimation of people on the earth becomes highly insignificant in light of these new revelations. I will you keep you posted as to todays results...