Photoelectric cells and lasers, nuclear power and fiber optics, space travel, and even semiconductors all trace back to his theories.

NPR: Einstein: Relatively Speaking, a Complicated Life

LGM1, because its discoverers half wondered whether they had come across the first trace of little green men in outer space.

ECONOMIST: Obituary

The typical Viennese coffee house -- an elegant institution with high ceilings, marble-top tables and a stack of newspapers to make one linger over an impeccable black brew with a customary glass of water -- may be more famously known than its Ukrainian cousin, but to trace back the origin of the communal coffee space, you have to go to Lviv, a Medieval city in western Ukraine.

BBC: Tracing the coffee house revolution to its Ukrainian roots

Medical technologies that help prolong life, such as the imaging processing used in CAT scanners and MRI machines, trace their origins to technology engineered for the use in space.

CNN: Bush: 'It is time for America to take the next steps' in space