Changes

British Historian Paul Johnson declares the turning point in 20th century to have been when fellow Briton Sir [[Arthur Eddington]], an esteemed English astronomer, ventured out on a boat off Africa in 1919 with a local Army unit to observe the bending of starlight around the sun during a total eclipse.  Upon his return to England declared that his observations proven the theory of relativity.  In fact recent analysis of Eddington's work revealed that he was biased in selecting his data, and that overall his data was inconclusive about the theory of relativity. The prediction was later confirmed by more rigorous experiments, such as those performed by the [[Hubble Space Telescope]].

British Historian Paul Johnson declares the turning point in 20th century to have been when fellow Briton Sir [[Arthur Eddington]], an esteemed English astronomer, ventured out on a boat off Africa in 1919 with a local Army unit to observe the bending of starlight around the sun during a total eclipse.  Upon his return to England declared that his observations proven the theory of relativity.  In fact recent analysis of Eddington's work revealed that he was biased in selecting his data, and that overall his data was inconclusive about the theory of relativity. The prediction was later confirmed by more rigorous experiments, such as those performed by the [[Hubble Space Telescope]].

Many ongoing questions in physics arise from relativity. For example there is much debate on the curvature of the universe as a whole - while it locally curves inwards at planets and stars, it is not obvious that it curves inwards overall. It may by flat, or curve outwards (a counterintuitive situation in which the universe is hyperbolic). Also, while concepts from relativity have been integrated into [[quantum mechanics]], the two are still incompatible. Development of a [[quantum theory of gravity]] (the "theory of everything") is arguably the most important research effort in physics today, one of the most notable examples being [[string theory]].

Many ongoing questions in physics arise from relativity. For example there is much debate on the curvature of the universe as a whole - while it locally curves inwards at planets and stars, it is not obvious that it curves inwards overall. It may by flat, or curve outwards (a counterintuitive situation in which the universe is hyperbolic). Also, while concepts from relativity have been integrated into [[quantum mechanics]], the two are still incompatible. Development of a [[quantum theory of gravity]] (the "theory of everything") is arguably the most important research effort in physics today, one of the most notable examples being [[string theory]].