Unexpected by researchers, such a force had nevertheless been predicted in 1915 by a modification that Albert Einstein proposed to his own theory of gravity, the general theory of relativity. But he later dropped the modification, known as the "cosmological term," calling it the "biggest blunder" of his life.
So the headlines proclaim: "Einstein was right after all," as though scientists should be compared as one would clairvoyants: Who is distinguished from the common herd by knowing the unknowable - such as the outcome of experiments that have yet to be conceived, let alone conducted? Who, with hindsight, has prophesied correctly?But science is not a competition between scientists; it is a contest of ideas - namely, explanations of what is out there in reality, how it behaves, and why. These explanations are initially tested not by experiment but by criteria of reason, logic, applicability, and uniqueness at solving the mysteries of nature that they address. Predictions are used to test only the tiny minority of explanations that survive these criteria.
