Einstein's 'miracle year' produced four revolutionary papers

In 1905, Albert Einstein — a 26-year-old patent clerk — published four papers that each fundamentally reshaped physics. The first explained the photoelectric effect (for which he won the Nobel Prize); the second described Brownian motion and confirmed atoms existed; the third introduced special relativity; and the fourth derived E=mc². He produced them while working full-time, without access to a university lab or a supervisor, communicating almost entirely by mail.

Source: Annalen der Physik, vol. 17-18 (1905)