Einstein's Errors—Part 2

So Einstein is still king of physics... his ideas remain true. Yet many an experimental physicist over this last century has planned a test with the secret desire of showing Albert to be wrong in one of his basic ideas. One reason is that scientists always try to show a theory is wrong... and if they fail, it gives them more confidence that the theory is right. But also, if an experimenter could demonstrate a major flaw in one of Einstein's theories, wouldn't that gain him everlasting fame? If E = mc² was not correct, wouldn't that knock the socks off the scientific world? If something was discovered to move faster than the speed of light, how might that rattle the foundations of science?

In fact, four years ago worldwide headlines frenetically trumpeted that an experimental research team in Europe had announced that their measurements indicated that neutrinos traveled faster than the speed of light. That news set off a string of wild speculations in the public mind. Einstein—the god of physics—wrong? The absolute upper speed limit of the universe broken? It was almost as dramatic as demonstrating that the sun does revolve around the Earth. Many people chuckled knowingly, contending that they hadn't believed in Albert's speed limit anyway.

Most scientists were quoted as being convinced that something in the neutrino experiment had to be flawed—the whole foundation of physics rested on the fact that nothing moved faster than light. Even the team of researchers who ran the experiment doubted their result, but their measurements had repeatedly found the same thing. In fact, their announcement was partly intended to get the world's physicists to examine their work and find a flaw. A flurry of activity occurred over the following year and suggested modifications were tried. The measurement error was found, soliciting a collective scientific sigh of relief that the speed of light had prevailed.

I find it interesting that the popular press has been far more subdued in announcing that Einstein was right, than when they snickered about his error. It's similar to someone tweeting some fantastic phony claim (“Obama is a Muslim!”) that goes viral, spreading instantly across the globe's viewing screens. Careful fact checking soon disproves the false assertion, but the damage has been done. The correction never gets the equal notoriety that the first phony claim did. (Day one headline: “Obama was not born in America!” Day two correction in tiny print on page 17: “Yes he was.”)

I think, that here on the 100^th anniversary of Einsteins' general theory of relativity, there is more to a scientist's motivation for trying to disprove his ideas than wanting to go down in history as the guy who out-thought the great man. There is a propensity for people to make someone like Einstein a hero or create a god-like vision of him. The public image grows over the years, as the vision expands. But other people dream of knocking the hero down from the pedestal, to show that he's a fake after all.

I'm not sure what all motivates some people to want to see that Einstein was wrong. The case of the faster-than-light neutrino was a recent spectacular example. I take comfort from the fact that Albert broke the physics mold over a century ago and that his insights are still very much intact. You rock, Albert!