Science: Ether and Light

Is there such a thing as ether, as the old-school physicists assert and Einstein denies? If so, does the ether fill the universe, absolutely at rest and permeating freely through all material bodies, or does the earth, as it revolves upon its axis, drag the ether with it?

This is one of the fine points of the Einstein theory of relativity which may finally be settled by experiments undertaken last week by Professor Albert A. Michelson, head of the physics department of the University of Chicago, foremost American physicist, Nobel prize winner (1907), and...

Want the full story?

Subscribe Now

Subscribe
Subscribe

Learn more about the benefits of being a TIME subscriber

If you are already a subscriber sign up — registration is free!