Into The Ether

Undiscovered

Science Friday and WNYC Studios

Wnyc, Society & Culture, 805813, Science, History, Friday, Studios

4.6 • 768 Ratings

🗓️ 4 December 2019

⏱️ 18 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In 1880, scientist Albert Michelson set out to build a device to measure something every 19th century physicist knew just had to be there. The “luminiferous ether” was invisible and pervaded all of space. It helped explain how light traveled, and how electromagnetic waves waved. Ether theory even underpinned Maxwell’s famous equations! One problem: When Alfred Michaelson ran his machine, the ether wasn’t there. Science historian David Kaiser walks Annie and Science Friday host Ira Flatow through Michaelson’s famous experiment, and explains how a wrong idea led to some very real scientific breakthroughs. This story first aired on Science Friday. GUEST David Kaiser, Germeshausen Professor of the History of Science, Professor of Physics, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology FOOTNOTES Find out more about the Michelson-Morley experiment on APS Physics. Read an archival article from the New York Times about the physicists’ experimental “failure.” CREDITS This episode of Undiscovered was produced by Annie Minoff and Christopher Intagliata. Our theme music is by I Am Robot And Proud.

Transcript

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0:00.0	So Ella, when it comes to wrong scientific ideas, there are definitely some greatest hits.
0:14.4	The ideas that every science historian is going to reach for.
0:17.8	The earth is flat.
0:19.0	Flat earth being one.
0:23.2	The Four Humors is another favorite.
0:28.0	But my favorite greatest hit, like the one on this list that has always intrigued me the most is the theory of the luminiferous ether. The ether was supposedly the substance that pervaded
0:35.4	all of space. And for some reason, I've always kind of
0:38.5	imagined it as like this sparkly, mysterious jello. Jello? Okay, it's a very mysterious
0:44.6	substance. I didn't know why seemingly every physicist in the 19th century believed in this
0:50.8	stuff. Because the jello's invisible. It's an invisible sparkly jello. It is an
0:54.7	invisible sparkly jello. But after looking into the history of the luminiferous ether,
1:00.0	I am convinced that not only did this theory make a ton of sense, it is actually our best
1:07.5	wrong idea. So last May, I invited Harvard science historian David Kaiser to join me
1:13.2	and host Ira Flato on Science Friday to talk about ether and how wrong ideas can lead to
1:20.1	real science breakthroughs. Here's that conversation. This is Science Friday. I'm Ira Flato,
1:26.4	and for the rest of the hour, we're going to be diving into the vaults of science history
1:31.2	because the hosts of our podcast, Undiscovered, are working on a new series all about science history.
1:38.5	And if you've read any of my books, you know how much I love science history.
1:42.6	Co-host Annie MN Office here to tell us about it.
1:45.6	Hey, Annie, let's tell us.
1:47.2	Hey, Ira.
1:47.5	Yeah.
	...

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