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13
May

2

Einstein’s accuracy

By admin | Filed in Cosmology, Einstein's legacy, General Theory of Relativity

There has been further experimental evidence proving the incrediable accuracy of Albert Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity. A team of cosmologists have announced at the National Astronomy Meeting being held at the University of Manchester, the most accurate measurement ever made from when the expansion of the universe began to accelerate.

It means that the phenomenon can be explained using just Einstein’s general theory of relativity and the cosmological constant – the simplest theoretical explanation for the acceleration of the universe. The results will be used to understand what is causing the acceleration and why, and will shed new light on dark energy – the name adopted for the fundamental agent driving the acceleration about which little is known.

The cosmologists from the University of Portsmouth and the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics have examined the period between five and six billion years ago when the universe was almost half its present age and made measurements of extraordinary accuracy – within 1.7 per cent. The findings support Einstein’s general theory of relativity which predicts how fast galaxies, separated by large distances, should be moving toward one another and at what rate the structure of the universe should be growing.

Team member Dr Rita Tojeiro said: ”The results are the best measurement of an intergalactic distance ever made, which means cosmologists are closer than ever to understanding why the universe’s expansion is accelerating. One of the great things about Einstein’s general theory of relativity is that it is testable. Our results support the theory and are fully consistent with the notion that constant vacuum energy – empty space creating a repulsive force – is driving the acceleration of the universe. These are profound statements that describe the physics of our universe at the most fundamental level. Critically, the results find no evidence that dark energy is simply an illusion stemming from our poor understanding of the laws of gravity – Einstein’s theory has passed its most stringent test yet at extra-galactic scales.”

The new discoveries are based on work by a collaboration of astronomers from across the globe representing the Baryon Acoustic Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS), part of the third Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-III), which is mapping the three-dimensional positions of more than one million galaxies.

Once again Einstein has proved the durability of his theories. Despite recent concerns about the limits of the speed of light being the ultimate universal speed limit, evidence is mounting that Einstein was right after all and the results of these experiments prove just how fundamental and important Einstein’s theory of relativity is for our understanding of the universe

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1
Apr

14

Einstein alive again?

By admin | Filed in Einstein's legacy, culture and society

You could be forgiven for thinking that with Albert Einstein in the news so much, the old man has somehow risen from the dead. First there has been all the arguments over the speed of light. It appears as though slowly, despite all the early speculation that Einstein was wrong in his universal speed limit of the speed of light, that he is coming out on top in that argument. There appears to be more and more confirmation that the the results of the experiment showing neutrinos travelling faster than the speed of light may have been incorrect.

Now comes his brain and his words.

First, his words.  The Hebrew University of Jerusalem has expanded its vast online Einstein catalog. The enhanced website “sheds light on every aspect of Einstein’s life and on his times,” the director of the university’s Einstein Center said. There is not just science papers, but also personal correspondence that may make readers consider Einstein in a new light. With 80,000 documents “now listed, categorized, cross-linked and cross-referenced online,” according to professor Hanoch Gutfreund, readers have a “panoramic view of the scope of topics and issues in which Einstein was involved.”

There’s a letter to Einstein’s 24-year-old mistress, among other lovers; a postcard to his sick mother; even mail about his wild hairdo. Einstein kept a missive from a 6-year-old girl that reads, in part: “I saw your picture in the paper. I think you ought to have your hair cut, so you can look better.” There also is a 1929 letter to the editor of an Arab newspaper suggesting a solution to the Jewish-Arab conflict.

Einstein, who received the Nobel Prize in physics in 1921, died in 1955 and bequeathed all his writings and intellectual heritage to the university. Einstein founded the school in 1918 with a group of individuals including the father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud; Jewish philosopher Martin Buber; and Chaim Weizmann, the first president of Israel.

Second, his brain. Sections of Einstein’s brain were put on public display on Thursday at the Wellcome Collection museum in London, as part of the exhibition “Brains: Mind as Matter.” The exhibition runs from March 29 to June 17 and displays preserved samples of Einstein’s brain on slides on loan from the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia. On display are brains of other famous persons such as English mathematician Charles Babbage and some infamous persons such as the murderer William Burke. Also on display is the brain of 19th century killer Edward Rullof, one of the largest known. The Exhibition “explores what humans have done to brains in the cause of medical intervention, scientific enquiry, cultural meaning and technological change.”

The continued interest in Albert Einstein reveals how deep his impact is on our world and the fascination with his genius.

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26
Feb

12

Einstein’s Loose Connection

By admin | Filed in E=mc2, culture and society, speed of light

Albert Einstein is back in the news. Late last year the news broke that neutrinos were measured travelling faster than the speed of light.

It was a sign of Einstein’s fame that most newspapers, magazines and news programmes reported this news not on the basis of the mind boggling finding, which appeared to contradict one of the cornerstones of modern physics – that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light, but on the basis that Einstein might have been wrong. Who cared about the physics- it was case of knocking the great man off his perch.

And now he’s back again, but the story has taken a bit of a turn around. Late on Wednesday night, scientists at the Opera collaboration in Gran Sasso, who carried out the initial experiments, released a statement outlining two potential errors in their hardware. “If confirmed, one would increase the size of the measured effect, the other would diminish it.” 

One of the possible errors lies with a faulty optical fibre connection in the mechanism used to time the arrival of the neutrinos at Gran Sasso. In order to make their measurements, scientists need to tag the exact moment the neutrinos are created in Cern and also the exact time the particles arrive at the Opera detector.

So now there seems to be a bit of step back about how Einstein might have been wrong to a story of loose leads and faulty cables.

It seems Einstein is still good copy all these years later and if his theories are difficult to understand at least the problems in those multi million dollar experiments might be something we can all understand!

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12
Feb

11

Einstein’s Bobblehead

By admin | Filed in culture and society

not everything on this blog is serious!

Albert Einstein was reknown for his sense of humour and indeed many news stories, whatever the topic, often throw in one of his comments. So what then do you tink the old genius would have made of this?

Yes, Albert Einstein is now a bobblehead. The company that makes them has announced it’s latest coup, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, which was co-founded by Albert Einstein (and which holds all IP rights to the likeness of the legendary scientist who bequeathed those rights to the university upon his death in 1955), has agreed for Einstein’s reproduction.

For some it may appear more than a little tacky, but in reality is shows just how famous Einstein remains and how he is the dominant scientific personality of our age.

To purchase the figure visit products in the store.

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20
Jan

34

Einstein on the Beach

By admin | Filed in culture and society

One of the enduring legacies of Albert Einstein is his impact on culture and society.

In 1976 celebrated American composer Philip Glass premiered his 5 hour opera Einstein on the Beach. It was hailed at the time as a revolutionary opera and has been thought of as one of the most important contributions to contemporary modern music of the last part of the twentieth century. Here is an excerpt.
Now, aged 74 Glass is touring the piece again.
Philip Glass is not for everyone and Einstein on the Beach would be one of the hardest of his works to enjoy. However, follow the link to read more about Glass, his music and the opera. Even if the music is not to your taste, consider the impact of Einstein to have such a work written about him and the impact of his work. There are few scientists so celebrate with such visionary music.

If you wish to download the entire piece you can do so from the Store.

At least give this a try, you never know you may be on the verge of enjoying something you never thought you might. Like Einstein, don’t be afraid to think outside the square or to let your imagination roam to places you once thought were off limits.

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