Things are about to change, however. Next year a global campaign is to be launched to mark Einstein Year. An unprecedented fusillade of shows, exhibitions and products will be unleashed round the world, each aimed at turning the great physicist into one of the sexiest figures of the 20th century. Make way, Che Guevara.

Apart from the Einstein posters, mugs, T-shirts, calendars, and bookmarks already churning off production lines, there will be an Einstein experiment pack for Glastonbury festival-goers; an Einstein screen saver that will help computer owners track down gravitation waves; kiddies' Einstein party packs; an Einstein ballet by the Rambert dance group; and a series of concerts, in Israel, to mark his lesser-known achievements - as a violin player.

Major exhibitions dedicated to the German-born physicist have already opened in the United States, and journals - including the current Scientific American - have dedicated entire issues to the great man's life and works. That soup-strainer moustache and floppy white mane will be hard to avoid in the next few months.

'This is a chance to get people to appreciate what physics has done for the modern world,' said Caitlin Watson, Einstein Year co-ordinator for the UK Institute of Physics. 'There is nobody to touch Einstein for that.'

Scientists have chosen 2005 to be Einstein Year (as well as International Year of Physics) because four of his greatest scientific papers were published in 1905. They included his theory of relativity, which redefined our ideas about space and time, and the paper that introduced the idea that energy and matter are interchangeable. This notion is summed up by his equation E=mc2 , the most enduring, scientific icon of the last century.

For physics, 1905 was an annus mirabilis , thanks to an unprepossessing Swiss patent office clerk who, working quietly on his own, utterly changed our ideas about the universe. Within 10 years, Einstein had been made a professor at the University of Berlin. A few years later he won the Nobel Prize, and not long after he published his general theory of relativity, which transformed our ideas about gravity and the universe.

This was a man who stretched time and bent space. As Scientific American puts it: 'Albert Einstein looms over 20th-century physics as its defining, emblematic figure.' Hence the lavish nature of next year's celebrations, although not every plan has been welcomed universally.

An Austrian proposal to mark the 50th anniversary of Einstein's death, which falls on 18 April, 2005, by holding a 'light relay' - a sort of astronomical Mexican wave in which thousands of people round the world will shine torches into the night sky - is to be boycotted by British astronomers. Light pollution is already ruining our study of the heavens, they say. However, most other ideas have been enthusiastically seized on by scientists - such as the Einstein at Home project. 'People will be able to send off for software that will allow their computers to operate at night using data, automatically downloaded from observatories, to spot minute fluctuations in data that reveal the existence of gravitational waves,' said Professor Jim Hough, of Glasgow University.

Gravitational waves, predicted by Einstein's general theory of relativity, are ripples in the curvature of space-time triggered by massive energetic events, such as supernovae - when stars explode and destroy themselves. None has ever been detected. 'There could be no better way to celebrate Einstein's great year than finding one this way,' added Hough.

Then there is the 'Einstein at Glastonbury' pack which physics students will display at the festival next June. Among the marvels of modern physics to be demonstrated will be rockets powered by water and fizzy Alka-Seltzer tablets and a levitating lemon that will be raised by some strange use of pint glasses, ashtrays and water. Normal fare for Glastonbury, in short.

The Einstein pack for kiddies' parties will include games for sticking kebab sticks through balloons without bursting them. 'You can learn a lot of physics this way,' said Caitlin Watson.

All of which should make Einstein a new folk hero as well as making the Hebrew University of Israel very rich. Through a Californian law firm, they control use of Einstein's image, and have to give permission, often in exchange for royalties, for the use of the great man's face or name on any products. Given what is about to be unleashed, things can only get better for them. (source : www.guardian.co.uk)