Word: einsteins
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Pulsars are dying stars that emit regular bursts of light that can be detected with radio telescopes. The Taylor-Hulse pulsar system consists of two pulsars orbiting each other, and provides a highly accurate way to test Einstein's general theory of relativity...
According to a statement yesterday, observations of the spiraling behavior of the pulsars have come within 0.5 percent of Einstein's predictions...
Still, they were worth looking for, if only to prove they weren't there, and Princeton astronomer Bohdan Paczynski had proposed an ingenious way to conduct the search. Albert Einstein showed in his general theory of relativity that the gravity from a star will bend rays of light that pass nearby. In principle, he said, a star could act as a lens, focusing and brightening the light of another star directly behind it. If a cloud of small stars or big planets really is orbiting the Milky Way, some of them should occasionally pass in front of stars...
...what really has the kids' attention is that Hawking did a guest spot last season on Star Trek: The Next Generation, playing a time-bending game of poker with his intellectual forebears, Albert Einstein and Sir Isaac Newton. The cameo appearance won him almost as much popular recognition as A Brief History of Time, the 1988 best seller that spent 53 weeks on the New York Times list, sold an astounding 5.5 million copies worldwide and spawned an award-winning movie. Not bad for a volume that was, despite its billing as an easy read, nearly impossible to get through...
...first book largely because of the ideas it contained, his readers were probably just as interested in the man himself. "No one can resist the idea of a crippled genius," Hawking says, with an edge of displeasure. He is not, as some have claimed, the second coming of Einstein, a characterization Hawking denounces as "rubbish . . . mere media hype." But his work on black holes, especially, would be of Nobel caliber -- except that the prize committee insists that theoretical work has to be verified by experiment or observation before it is rewarded. None of Hawking's theories will likely be proved...