Conville & Walsh

Einstein’s Theory of Space Time is possibly the most perfect intellectual achievement of modern physics. Ever since Newton, scientists had believed that gravity is a force of attraction, almost like a magnet, but with his elegant Field Equations, Einstein showed us a vision of space as a crumpled sheet, changing
shape according to the mass of certain objects.

The Field Equations have remained untouched for almost a century, explaining how the biggest forces in the universe work. In an attempt to fix what he saw as a problem with the equations, Einstein invented something called the ‘cosmological constant’, a mysterious force which pushes the universe apart and stops it from imploding. After it was proven that the universe is expanding, he regarded the cosmological constant as a ‘blunder,’ and the idea hasn’t had much currency since.

Through the twentieth century, Einstein’s Theory has been by turns praised, ignored and denounced by the establishment. With the development of String Theory and Quantum Physics, there have been many challenges to Einstein’s equations and many competing theories, but with new technology that allows us to look back 13 billion years into our past, it’s beginning to look like there might be a cosmological constant after all…