One hundred years after the completion of the General Theory of Relativity, conferences, meetings, and celebrations are taking place all around the world.Yet a decisive consideration on the subject by Albert Einstein has completely fallen into oblivion. Already in 1911, he held the key to an even greater discovery in his hands: a theory concerning the variable speed of light that would have explained the origin of gravity by referring to distant masses in the universe. Eventually, the consequences for modern cosmology would be revolutionary: the picture of an expanding universe and the Big Bang would need to be revised. Sadly, Einstein's ingenious idea came twenty years too early. For it took until the 1930s before the true size of the universe was revealed, which would have confirmed his formula about the variable speed of light. Due to a series of accidents, the theory remained practically unknown, although the Nobelists Erwin Schrödinger and Paul Dirac had worked on similar ideas.Einstein's Lost Key is a description of relativity comprehensible for lay people, a vividly exposed history of science, and a serious, though controversial input for modern research.Dr. Alexander Unzicker is a German physicist and award-winning science writer. His books Bankrupting Physics and The Higgs Fake have generated controversy in the physics community. With Einsteins Lost Key, Unzicker gives an account of his long-lasting pursuit of Einstein's ideas.
Author(s): Alexander Unzicker
Publisher: Alexander Unzicker
Year: 2015
Introduction
Chapter 1 The Blind Spot of Physics
Why Einstein's best idea remains unknown to this day
Chapter 2 “I Rely on Intuition”
Why all scientific revolutions began without calculations
Chapter 3 “Arbitrary Numbers ... Ought Not to Exist.”
Einstein on simplicity in nature
Chapter 4 A Precursor of Deep Thoughts
Relativity, Mach and the secret of the universe
Chapter 5 The Revolutionary Idea of 1911
Why light propagates along curved paths
Chapter 6 Seduced by Mathematical Beauty
The Pyrrhic victory of geometrical formulation
Chapter 7 Gravity from the Universe
Einstein could not see that Mach was correct
Chapter 8 Half a Century Too Late
Robert Dicke’s simple completion of Einstein’s idea
Chapter 9 The Genius Who Didn’t Talk to Einstein
How Dirac’s Large Number Hypothesis enters the game
Chapter 10 Big Bang Without Expansion
Einstein’s desired cosmos
Chapter 11 Back Before Newton?
Why we need to question the notions of space and time
Chapter 12 Forgotten But Not Hidden
Einstein’s idea is visible long since: It is dark energy
Chapter 13 The Next Revolution Needs Open Data
Why astronomical precision measurements must go online
Outlook
Acknowledgment
Images
Bibliography
Endnotes
