Brian Greene explains the quintessential example of a "paradigm shift." So don't belittle Einstein by throwing the term around willy-nilly about every Great New Business Idea With A Fabulous Value Proposition.

Physicists call 1905 Einstein's "miracle year" not because of the discovery of relativity alone, but because in that year Einstein achieved the unimaginable, writing four papers that each resulted in deep and formative changes to our understanding of the universe.

With these three papers, our view of space, time and matter was permanently changed.

So the next time you use your cellphone or laptop, pause for a moment. Recognize that even these commonplace devices rely on our greatest, yet most puzzling, scientific achievement and - as things now stand - tap into humankind's most supreme assault on the idea that reality is what we think it is.