FROM THE EDITOR
COVER: MAGIC TORCH THIS PAGE: GETTY IMAGES X2, NASA, VALENTIN TKACH
I think it’s fair to say that we sometimes take our understanding of the Universe for granted.
I don’t mean that in a pompous way, just that when I look up directions on my phone, I rarely stop to think about the GPS satellites tracking my position from space, and how those satellites count each second slightly faster than we do here on Earth.
They’re counting faster to counter the effect of time dilation, as predicted by Einstein’s theory of General Relativity. And if I did stop and think about that every time I took a wrong turn… well, it would make me a tedious person to go walking with. But on the rare occasion it does make you pause for thought, it is pretty mind-blowing.