One
hundred years ago, an obscure German physicist named Albert Einstein
presented to the Prussian Academy of Science his general theory of
relativity. Nothing prior had prepared scientists for such a radical
re-envisioning of the foundations of reality. Encoded in a
set of neat compact equations was the idea that our universe is
constructed from a sort of magical mesh, now known as 'spacetime'.
According to the theory, the structure of this mesh would be revealed in
the bending of light around distant stars.
