Read more: 鈥Rewriting the textbooks: When science gets it wrong鈥
Albert Einstein鈥檚 towering reputation is only enhanced by his self-styled biggest blunder. It might not have been a blunder after all.
At stake is the fate of the universe. In 1915, Einstein derived the equations of general relativity that describe the workings of a gravity-dominated cosmos. He added a fudge factor called the to ensure that, in keeping with contemporary tastes, the universe described neither expanded nor contracted. Soon after, though, Edwin Hubble showed that distant galaxies were receding from us, blowing the static universe apart. Einstein reputedly disowned his idea.
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He might now want to disown the disowning. The discovery in 1998 that very distant supernovae appear to be not just receding but accelerating away from us suggests the presence of a mysterious 鈥渄ark energy鈥 that counteracts gravity鈥檚 pull (). And it turns out that a good way to reproduce this effect is to add the fudge back into Einstein鈥檚 cosmological recipe.
That is not to everyone鈥檚 taste, largely because no one knows what dark energy might be. Some cosmologists favour other solutions. If Earth were at the heart of a giant cosmic void, for instance, that too would create the illusion that the distant cosmos is flying away from us. But that would involve abandoning an idea we have held dear for centuries: the 鈥淐opernican principle鈥 which says that Earth鈥檚 place in the universe is not at all special (New Scientist, 15 November 2008, p 32).
Working out the true story may take some time. But if the evidence collected on these pages is anything to go by, science rarely shies away from slaughtering its sacred cows.
Read previous article: 鈥 Rewriting the textbooks: Magnetic north without south鈥
Read more: 鈥Rewriting the textbooks: When science gets it wrong鈥
