Einstein's Biggest Blunder

Looking back at a century’s milestones andtowering intellect that helped develop the atomic
willingness to strive forward, and looking ahead tobomb. Einstein’s mistake was not a
an era that holds the keys to unansweredmathematical error rather an error stemming
questions, one man’s name  seems thefrom lack of sufficient data. Because Einstein had
most likely to forever be synonymous withinsufficient data supporting a dynamically,
genius; Albert Einstein. Since the early nineteenexpanding universe, his curiosity directed him along
hundreds, Albert Einstein has indisputablya different path. Yet, his curiosity was perhaps his
influenced the history of science through his manygreatest asset:  consider how history would have
theories on subjects ranging from the laws ofchanged course had the great risk takers and
mechanics to the laws governing electromagneticthinkers accepted the common beliefs of their
fields. By pursuing his obsession of challenging thesocieties. For example, had Columbus accepted
status quo, he came to defy the intellectualthe common belief that the world was flat, the
standard set by the scientific community, sawhistory of the Americas and of southern Europe
beyond what was considered commonlymost certainly would be much different than what
accepted, and expanded the limits of humanis known today.
knowledge. Yet, the controversy surrounding theDespite Einstein’s realization of the universe
cosmological constant he proposed, as part of hisexpanding dynamically, this issue is still being
theories, has become one of the road blocks todebated by scientists today. Almost a century
scientific progress today.after the cosmological constant was introduced
In the course of developing many of his theories,by Einstein, it still lies at the crossroads of
including his famous Theory of General Relativity,quantum mechanics and gravity, and convincing
Einstein introduced the cosmological constant,reasons have been expressed to show the
which holds the notion of a static universe versuscosmological constant is still a viable part of
an expanding universe. In this proposed idea,cosmology. For example, support for the
Einstein assumed this quality of the universe to becosmological constant is present in the field of
true despite not having arrived at this conclusionquantum mechanical vacuum energy. Quantum
through any mathematical derivation or physicalmechanical energy states that the vacuum is not
proof.  Einstein introduced this new constant intototally empty and has some energy associated
the scientific community, along with his claim of awith it. It has been proposed, that the energy of
non- expanding universe and exciting newa vacuum is explained by the cosmological
equations explaining the cosmological equilibrium ofconstant, because the Theory of General
attraction between all matter in the universe.Relativity describes gravitational energy as a
Alexander Friedmann, a Russian mathematicianproperty of finite geometry of space and time.
and cosmologist, opposed the notion of a staticAnother theory concerning the universe today
universe. In his work with the equations ofdeals with the universe going through a process
General Relativity, Friedmann proposed thatcalled inflation. Inflation theory assumes the
matter and energy are uniformly distributed in theuniverse to be geometrically flat, and as a result
universe and expansion rates of this matter arehas implications that only the cosmological
also uniformly proportional, and subsequentlyconstant can address.
supported the Big Bang Theory which maintainsEinstein’s cosmological constant received so
the belief that the universe emerged from amuch attention in the scientific community that a
state of extremely high temperature and densityteam of Texas A&M researchers have
in an explosive expansion ten billion to fifteen billionstarted a project by the name of ESSENCE and
years ago, and thus maintains the belief that theare studying supernovae to figure out if the
universe must be expanding. In fact, Friedmannaccelerating force of the universe is consistent
predicted exactly what Edwin Hubble concludedwith the cosmological constant. Having begun in
years later from his observations concerning theOctober of two thousand and two, the group of
uniform expansion of the universe.Texas A&M researchers have finally
Motivation in exploring “Einstein’sachieved their goal in studying two hundred
Universe” slowly evaporated after Hubblesupernovae using a four meter diameter
discovered a relationship between the redshift andtelescope stationed in the nation of Chile and are
distance in nineteen-twenty nine, which formednow in the process of assessing the data to
the basis of the modern expansion paradigm.determine the validity of the cosmological
Hubble maintained that other galaxies in theconstant.
universe appeared to be moving away from theIn the past years, there have been many
Milky Way, and according to his observations ofattempts at resolving the issue of the
the redshift, the farther the galaxy, the faster itcosmological constant, invoking many different
was receding from the Earth. Hubble supportedmethods, yet all of these attempts have failed so
the Big Bang Theory in that he observed that thefar. It seems, the only way to resolve this
universe included many other galaxies outside ofongoing debate in the scientific community is
the Milky Way, and he concluded galaxies wereadvances in telescope technology and more
expanding away from the Milky Way at a velocityobservatories worldwide to provide the scientific
proportional to their distance.community a more precise picture of what
After Einstein fully analyzed and understood thesehappened as our universe evolved to its present
observations, he proclaimed that his theory of thestate. As in Einstein’s day, the problem seems
cosmological constant was his “biggestto be the lack of definitive data to surmount this
blunder.” This was astounding coming from aobstacle to scientific progress in the present day.