Blogocentric Formulations

This Just In - July 26

Einstein's theory of relativity passes yet another test  
Written as part of "This Just In..."   for "Blog Harbor from The Talent Pond" 

I'm not going to pretend like I'm any kind of an expert on physics and Einstein's theory of relativity... evidenced by the fact that the title of this article caught my interest and then my eyes immediately glazed over as I started reading about the details of what exactly they were studying and how it did or didn't apply to Einstein's general theory of blah blah blah.

The reason this article caught my interest is because I think it's really cool when older science holds up. Science is a field where there are constantly new developments disproving old theories and practices. The earth is flat... oh wait, nope, no it's not! The earth is the center of the universe... hold up, no, we were wrong about that too! Lobotomies and electroshock therapy to treat mental illness... oops? With all the stuff out there being superseded by our better more advanced understanding of science years or decades later, I think it's fascinating when someone was so prescient in their own time that they were able to propose a theory or a process that still holds up after all this time.

My favorite part of this piece was the Ohio State University astrophysicist who said that they were hoping to find a crack in Einstein's theory, but that this latest event just reaffirming what he theorized "feels like [they're] beating a dead horse" trying to find a flaw in Einstein's work. It must be so frustrating to be a scientist who's all like, "Aha! I'm going to prove this old theory wrong!" and then later is like, "Uh, yeah, that old theory is pretty legit."

This article definitely gives me a newfound respect for Einstein. There are very few scientists who can claim theories that have endured for long periods of time. Einstein, in the span of human history, hasn't been around for all that long; his theory of relativity is only about a hundred years old. But a hundred years is also a very long time in terms of scientific discovery... so I wonder if his theory will eventually be disproven when we have the technology or other knowledge to better understand the universe, or if he'll join the ranks of Isaac Newton or Galileo Galilei who have had their theories proven correct for hundreds of years, to the point where they're accepted constants. I guess only time will tell whether Einstein continues to own all these young upstarts, or if one of them will unseat him at some point in the future with a better theory.