Most scientific findings are sedimentary, slowly building upon the edifice of understanding. Rare is the idea that marks a fundamental change to a system of thought, forcing the rest of science to bend to its own vision.
Thanks, Albert!
Most scientific findings are sedimentary, slowly building upon the edifice of understanding. Rare is the idea that marks a fundamental change to a system of thought, forcing the rest of science to bend to its own vision. However, on November 25, 1915, Albert Einstein published a theory that did just that. The ten equations of his general theory of relativity set out a new concept of gravity - not as its own, independent force, but as the warping of the fabric of space and time in the presence of mass.
In the intervening century, Einstein himself has become a byword for cartoonish genius. His theory, however, is cherished less than it should be. That is partly because of its complexity; general relativity survived some trying experimental tests early on, but few scientists focused on it - in large part because its equations were so damnably hard to solve. And when the theory did take firm hold, it swiftly became so ubiquitous in describing astronomical goings-on that it began to be taken for granted.
The world has much to thank Einstein for. Because of him, scientists think of space as relative: what you measure depends on your vantage point, and on what mass is around you. Relativity permitted the New Horizons mission this year to steer a space probe through a 150km-wide “keyhole” near Pluto, nearly 5 billion kilometres away, after a nine-and-a-half-year journey. A more quotidian example of the extraordinary precision of relativity comes from satellite-navigation systems. Einstein’s theory shows that satellites experience an ever-so-slightly different stretching of space-time in orbit than people do on the surface of the Earth - so the positional data streamed to smartphone users, and the time-stamps used for transactions in industries from banking to energy, must take in relativistic adjustments.
The theory has yielded odd surprises. It predicted, and then helped explain the black holes that have captured public imagination. This concordance across phenomena that seem so disparate is a tantalising hint that scientists may yet come up with a grand theory that incorporates all the physical forces.
Game of Thrones jail ship designed
to punish Panama Papers criminals
A giant jail ship with thousands of pods similar to the ‘sky cells’ that kept Tyrion Lannister prisoner in Game of Thrones has been designed by architects.
Designers have drawn up plans for a giant boat that could hold 3,300 prisoners in its paper sails.
The ship is designed to be a prison for the tax-avoiders named and shamed in the Panama Papers.
Last year, 11 million financial documents, dubbed the Panama Papers, were leaked from a Panamanian law firm.
The leaked papers show how the world’s rich and powerful use offshore tax havens to hide their wealth.
Architects said the ship’s open-air prison cells would be made from paper and make up the boat’s giant sails.
The sails would also house a master’s office, administration centre and mess hall. The upper deck is dedicated to agriculture. A sports field can be found on the bow of the boat. The cargo hold contains a sea water-treatment plant, workshops and a gym.
The ship was designed as part of the 1week1project, a site that releases an architectural concept every week based on observations from everyday life.
