Einstein's Big Idea

The story

Over 100 years ago, Albert Einstein grappled with the implications of his revolutionary special theory of relativity and came to a startling conclusion: mass and energy are one, related by the formula E = mc2. In "Einstein's Big Idea," NOVA dramatizes the remarkable story behind this equation. E = mc2 was just one of several extraordinary breakthroughs that Einstein made in 1905, including the completion of his special theory of relativity, his identification of proof that atoms exist, and his explanation of the nature of light, which would win him the Nobel Prize in Physics. Among Einstein's ideas, E = mc2 is by far the most famous. Yet how many people know what it really means? In a thought-provoking and engrossing docudrama, NOVA illuminates this deceptively simple formula by unraveling the story of how it came to be.

Cast & crew

Aidan McArdleEinstein

Anton LesserVoltaire

Andrew Callaway

Andrew CallawayMaupertuis

Julian Rhind-TuttAntoine Lavoisier

Shirley HendersonMileva Maric

Ty GlaserMarie Anne Lavoisier

Andy Crabbe

Andy CrabbeHabicht

Samuel WestHumphry Davy

Daniel D'Alessandro

Daniel D'AlessandroAlgarotti

Brendan Fleming

Brendan FlemingHermann Einstein

Gregory Fox-Murphy

Gregory Fox-MurphyBrande

Philip Herbert

Philip HerbertCount de Amerval