It was the International Year of Physics, when physicists around the globe celebrated the centenary of Einstein’s famous papers on relativity, Brownian motion and the quantum theory of light. The year saw a vast range of events, conferences and exhibitions to commemorate the top physicist of all time and enthuse the public about physics. But was 2005 an annus mirabilis for physics research? It is probably too soon to give a definitive answer, but as the year draws to a close the likely answer seems to be “no”.