Walter Isaacson Quote
Instead, this time he made what he called a slight modification to his theory. To keep the matter in the universe from imploding, Einstein added a repulsive force: a little addition to his general relativity equations to counterbalance gravity in the overall scheme. In his revised equations, this modification was signified by the Greek letter lambda, , which he used to multiply his metric tensor gμv in a way that produced a stable, static universe. In his 1917 paper, he was almost apologetic: We admittedly had to introduce an extension of the field equations that is not justified by our actual knowledge of gravitation. He dubbed the new element the cosmological term or the cosmological constant (kosmologische Glied was the phrase he used). Later,* when it was discovered that the universe was in fact expanding, Einstein would call it his biggest blunder. But even today, in light of evidence that the expansion of the universe is accelerating, it is considered a useful concept, indeed a necessary one after all.14 During
Instead, this time he made what he called a slight modification to his theory. To keep the matter in the universe from imploding, Einstein added a repulsive force: a little addition to his general relativity equations to counterbalance gravity in the overall scheme. In his revised equations, this modification was signified by the Greek letter lambda, , which he used to multiply his metric tensor gμv in a way that produced a stable, static universe. In his 1917 paper, he was almost apologetic: We admittedly had to introduce an extension of the field equations that is not justified by our actual knowledge of gravitation. He dubbed the new element the cosmological term or the cosmological constant (kosmologische Glied was the phrase he used). Later,* when it was discovered that the universe was in fact expanding, Einstein would call it his biggest blunder. But even today, in light of evidence that the expansion of the universe is accelerating, it is considered a useful concept, indeed a necessary one after all.14 During
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About Walter Isaacson
He has been the president and CEO of the Aspen Institute, a nonpartisan policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C., the chair and CEO of CNN, and the editor of Time.
Isaacson attended Harvard University and Pembroke College, Oxford as a Rhodes scholar. He is the co-author with Evan Thomas of The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made (1986) and the author of Pro and Con (1983), Kissinger: A Biography (1992), Benjamin Franklin: An American Life (2003), Einstein: His Life and Universe (2007), American Sketches (2009), Steve Jobs (2011), The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution (2014), Leonardo da Vinci (2017), The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race (2021) and Elon Musk (2023).
Isaacson is an advisory partner at Perella Weinberg Partners, a New York City-based financial services firm. He was vice chair of the Louisiana Recovery Authority, which oversaw the rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina, chaired the government board that runs Voice of America, and was a member of the Defense Innovation Board.