Focusing on Einstein's mistakes as a window into his technique of building theories; Einstein's missteps as a result of doubting some of the staple concepts of today's physics, including black holes, the Big Bang and the uncertainty principle.
EPISODE 1
What Einstein Got Right: Special Relativity
How Einstein's powerful intuition led him astray in several key areas of physics, which are now among the most fruitful areas of the discipline; looking at what he got right, starting with his special theory of relativity.
EPISODE 2
What Einstein Got Right: General Relativity
Einstein's general theory of relativity, which built on special relativity and led to a radically new understanding of the geometry of space and time; the rocky road Einstein followed to this breakthrough; the mistakes that hampered his progress.
EPISODE 3
Einstein's Rejection of Black Holes
Einstein's rejection of the most astounding prediction of general relativity; how the concept of black holes emerged from Einstein's theory and how he dismissed it, even as other researchers examined the theoretical properties of these objects.
EPISODE 4
Einstein and Gravitational Waves
Einstein's reluctance to accept the idea that general relativity predicts that objects with mass radiate extremely faint gravitational waves when they interact; the evidence accumulated after Einstein's death of the existence of gravity waves.
EPISODE 5
Cosmology and the Cosmological Constant
Investigating what Einstein reportedly called his biggest blunder, which is his insistence that the universe is static; why general relativity is inconsistent with a static universe; Edwin Hubble's pioneering observations of the cosmos.
EPISODE 6
The Cosmological Constant and Dark Energy
Einstein's attempt to make general relativity compatible with a static universe by adding a cosmological constant to his equations; how this mistake looks prescient in light of the discovery that the expansion of the universe is accelerating.
Dan Hooper
