Brilliant Blunders: From Darwin to Einstein - Colossal Mistakes by Great Scientists That Changed Our Understanding of Life and the Universe

by Livio, Mario

  If one attempts to calculate: Norton 1999 discusses this problem in detail.

  a few physicists attempted: In particular, von Seeliger 1895 and Neumann 1896. Einstein may have been partially inspired by their work in introducing the cosmological constant.

  if the size of the universe somehow: This model was suggested by Petrosian, Salpeter, and Szekeres 1967. However, a few years later, Petrosian showed that the model also predicted a decline in the brightness of more distant quasars, contrary to observations.

  When he introduced the cosmological constant: Again, for the mathematically inclined, the new equation read: Gμν – 8πG ρΛ gμν = 8πG Tμν, where ρΛ is the energy density associated with the cosmological constant.

  if one moves this term to the right-hand side: The equation now reads: Gμν = 8πG (Tμν + ρΛ gμν).

  This is an entirely different physical: For excellent popular explanations of the cosmological constant as representing the energy of the vacuum see Krauss and Turner 2004, Randall 2011, and Greene 2011. Davies 2011 is also a short, accessible article. Theories of time, and their relations to cosmic expansion, are fascinatingly explained by Carroll 2001, and Frank 2011.

  Einstein proposed in 1919: Einstein 1919.

  short note on the subject: Einstein 1927.

  The practitioners of quantum mechanics: Described in Enz and Thellung 1960.

  “Everything happens as though”: Lemaître 1934.

  Zeldovich made the first genuine: Zeldovich 1967.

  when particle physicists carried out: Excellent technical discussions of the cosmological constant problems can be found, eg, in Weinberg 1989, Peebles and Ratra 2003, and Carroll 2001 (updated regularly).

  two teams of astronomers: The results were published by Riess et al. 1998 and Perlmutter et al. 1999. Overbye 1998 wrote a wonderful description of the discovery.

  The discovery of accelerating expansion: Panek 2011, Kirshner 2002, Livio 2000, and Goldsmith 2000 provide colorful popular accounts of the discovery.

  Type 1a supernovae are very rare: They are thought to result from white dwarfs that accrete mass up to the maximum mass allowed for a white dwarf (the Chandrasekhar mass). At that point, they ignite carbon at their centers. The entire white dwarf is destroyed in the explosion.

  combining detailed observations of the fluctuations: The website of the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotrophy Probe (WMAP) provides updated information at www.map.gsfcnasa.gov.

  were hung on concepts such as supersymmetry: Kane 2000 provides a beautiful popular description of the concepts involved in supersymmetry. Dine 2007 is an excellent technical text.

  The properties of our universe: In the presentation here, I largely follow the discussion in Livio and Rees 2005. A classical book on anthropic reasoning is Barrow and Tipler 1986. Vilenkin 2006, Susskind 2006, and Greene 2011 give popular, comprehensive discussions of anthropics and the multiverse concept.

  physicist Steven Weinberg came up: Weinberg 1987.

  who first presented this type: Carter 1974.

  Wald was asked to examine data: Mangel and Samaniego 1984 is a scholarly analysis of Wald’s work on aircraft survivability. Wolfowitz 1952 chronicles all of Wald’s work.

  very familiar with the Malmquist bias: The Wikipedia article about the Malmquist bias is quite detailed and not too technical. At http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malmquist_bias.

  Kepler published a treatise: Kepler’s model is described in some detail in Livio 2002, p. 142.

  This multiverse is supposed to continually: Beautifully explained in Vilenkin 2006.

  in a vast cosmic landscape: This “landscape” containing a huge number of potential universes is the subject of Susskind 2006.

  In a lecture delivered at Oxford: Einstein 1934. The Herbert Spencer Lecture was delivered on June 10, 1933.

  Einstein’s collaborator Leopold Infeld: Infeld 1949, p. 477.

  “The history of science provides”: Lemaître 1949, p. 443.

  Einstein himself remained unconvinced: Einstein 1949.

  Einstein’s failures: Weinberg 2005 presents a few of Einstein’s mistakes. Ohanian 2008 gives an excellent compilation and review of all of Einstein’s mistakes.

  “The aspiration to truth is more”: Einstein wrote his last autobiographical notes in March 1955, ending with comments about quantum mechanics. In Seelig 1956.

  Coda

  philosopher Bertrand Russell suggested: Russell 1951.

  Psychologists Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman: Kahneman 2011 gives a comprehensive, popular account on the ideas and findings about decision making.

  “We must, however, acknowledge”: Darwin 1998 [1874], p. 642.

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