Einstein challenged
On November 25th, 1915, Albert Einstein presented his general theory of relativity, which was published on December 2nd. To mark these dates, we are highlighting stories from The Economist's archive showing how the theory, and the man behind it, were received. Here, we discuss those trying to debunk relativity.
JUST months after the Viking spaceship brought empirical proof of his theories, a scattered minority of the world's scientists are saying Einstein got his theory of relativity wrong. They are planning a conference Bulgaria this spring (“The International Conference on Space-Time Absoluteness", no less) to prove their point. Were they to succeed in denting the hitherto sacred relativity theory, the repercussions on modern science and technology would be large. Modern astronomy, electronics, nuclear physics and nuclear energy for example, rely implicitly on much of Einstein’s thought.
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