  This is a pedagogical introduction to Brownian motion on the occasion of the
100th anniversary of Einstein's 1905 paper on the subject. After briefly
reviewing Einstein's work in its contemporary context, we pursue some lines of
further developments and applications in soft condensed matter and biology.
Over the last century Brownian motion became promoted from an odd curiosity of
marginal scientific interest to a guiding theme pervading all of the modern
(live) sciences.
