Why is Einstein's discovery of relativity so important to science?

Answer 1

Einstein's theory of relativity presents an explanation for certain experimental results (especially, those of the famous Michaelson-Morley experiment about the speed of light) which are otherwise inexplicable; in so doing, he shows that the universe behaves in very different ways than what people had thought throughout history. Matter, energy, space, and time are interrelated in ways that had not been previously suspected. Time does not always pass at the same speed everywhere, space is not a constant and unchanging aspect of our environment, matter and energy can be converted into each other, etc. All of this is highly revolutionary, and has had many very important consequences for the development not only of new theoretical physics, but of new technology as well. The invention of lasers was based on Einstein's theories (even though Einstein himself never built one) and GPS satellites would not work, if they were not adjsted to account for relativistic effects. And of course, nuclear power and nuclear weapons are based on Einstein's work as well.