Born in 1879 in Germany, Einstein's curiosity and passion for learning were evident from an early age. He spent his early years working as a patent clerk in Bern, Switzerland, during which time he developed some of his most groundbreaking ideas. His theory of special relativity, introduced in 1905, challenged long-held notions of space and time. The famous equation E=mc², derived from this theory, revolutionized our understanding of energy and mass.