Powstawanie i wczesny odbiór szczególnej teorii względności. 2, Równoważność masy i energii

This essay is based on a lecture delivered by the author to the Albert Einstein Symposium, held at the Department of Physics of the Warsaw University on May 12, 2005. After some introductory remarks, in section 1, an overview of the second Einstein's relativity paper of 1905 is presented. In section 2 the author carries out an analysis (along the lines worked out by Stachel and Torretti) of some critical remarks about the paper which appeared in the literature. In section 3 the early reception of the Einstein 1905 relativity papers both in German-speaking countries and at the Jagiellonian University in Cracow is also touched upon, and in section 4 a list of documented contacts of Polish scientists with Einstein is presented.