Science: Super-Relativity

This week Albert Einstein announced what might be the most important scientific news in many decades: he had developed a new "Generalized Theory of Gravitation" which attempts to interrelate all known physical phenomena. The full theory, will be published in February by Princeton University Press in the third edition of Einstein's The Meaning of Relativity. But the heart of the theory is contained in four equations (see cut).

At present, man's basic knowledge about the physical universe is contained in two independent theories: 1) relativity, which deals with the gravitational fields produced by massive bodies; and 2) the quantum theory, which deals...