During the course of November 1915, Albert Einstein delivered four reports to the Prussian Academy of Sciences, completing in that way his eight years long journey to a new theory of gravity, known as the theory of General Relativity. As a relativistic theory of the gravitational field, this theory encodes the gravitational force into the properties of spacetime geometry, thereby promoting space and time into active participants in the physics of the real world.
The theory of General Relativity is a theoretical masterpiece, revolutionizing our understanding of space, time, gravity, astrophysics and cosmology. But it is also experimentally well confirmed, from initial observations of bending the light by the Sun and perihelion precession of Mercury, all the way to time dilation in the gravitational field of the Earth and its usage in the construction of the Earth's satellite positioning system, the GPS. The overwhelming impact of General Relativity on overall human knowledge is perhaps best illustrated with the words of John Archibald Wheeler:
"Of all the great predictions that science has ever made over the centuries, was there ever one greater than this: to predict, and predict correctly, and predict against all expectations, a phenomenon as fantastic as the expansion of the Universe?"
This year marks one hundred years since the formulation of General Relativity, Einstein's most famous contribution to theoretical physics. The Group for Gravitation, Particles and Fields from University of Belgrade will commemorate the centennial of GR through a series of lectures and outreach to general public. We invite everyone to participate in the GR100 event, a celebration of the 100th anniversary of what is certainly one of the most fascinating theories in modern science.
