CORRECTION – AT 7:28 P.M. ET:  Our post yesterday arguing that there's no such thing as settled science got more reader reaction than anything we've written recently. 

Most was favorable, but a few readers pointed out an error, which I'm glad to correct.  I said that Einstein's general theory of relativity overturned hundreds of years of Newtonian science.  I should have been less grandiose and said that it expanded on Newtonian science, or used a similar construction.  Thanks to reader Walt Bussey for being the first to note the gaffe.  So did another reader, who prefers to remain anonymous.  And so did Frank J. Tipler, Professor of Mathematical Physics at Tulane University, who explains the argument as follows:

There’s been a great deal of discussion on the “science is settled” question.  Is science ever settled?  When Copernicus published, in 1543, his proposal that the Sun, not the Earth, was the center of the Solar System, he was attacked for bringing back a theory that had been proposed before the Common Era by the Greek Aristarchus of Samos. The science had been settled centuries before, Copernicus was told. Mr. Katz illustrates this point by writing: “Einstein's general theory of relativity overturned hundreds of years of Newtonian physics.”

Mr. Katz’s point is correct, but alas, his example is not.  In spite of what has been written in the popular books, even books written by professional  physicists, unfortunately Einstein’s general relativity did NOT overturn Newtonian physics. General relativity is a special case of Newtonian  physics, as Einstein (if not some physicists) knew.

Einstein gave a lecture in Leyden, the Netherlands, in which he argued that general relativity was just a form of ether theory, in which the gravitational effects of the ether are taken into account. Einstein also knew that gravity in Newton’s theory is curvature, just as it is in general relativity. The great French mathematician E. Cartan had proven this in the early 1920’s, and had corresponded with Einstein about it.  (Cartan’s proof is available in Chapter 12 of the book, "Gravitation," coauthored by my own teacher, the late Princeton professor John A. Wheeler, who was himself a post-doctoral student of Niels Bohr.)

I blame mainly the MSM for promulgating this error about general relativity.   The British astronomer Arthur Eddington wanted to end the hatred of Germany felt by many Britons in 1919, and what better way than for an Englishman to  test a theory of a German, a theory which, if correct, would overturn the  theory of the greatest English physicist of all time, Isaac Newton.  Eddington sold the MSM of his day a bill of goods, and they ran with it.  They are still running with it.

The climate frauds of today are doing what Eddington did in 1919.  Only they are lying for power and grant money.  Eddington, to his credit, was motivated purely by a desire for peace between nations.

COMMENT:   We have a very informed readership at Urgent Agenda.  It's a pleasure to be corrected by Professor Tipler.

There will be other comments on the "science is settled" issue at our Forum, later tonight.

February 5, 2010