Reader Nick Canning says the aether theory was “ascientific”(28 January, p 54). However, this theory was one of the most fruitful in the history of science. It was useful during the development of ...

Letter from Augustin Fresnel to Fraņcois Arago, on the influence of the movement of the earth on some phenomena of optics -- On the aberration of light / by G.G. Stokes -- On the relative motion ...

Until the late 19th century, scientists around the world believed that the vast space between the universe’s stars and planets was filled with a mythical and mysterious substance called aether. Aether ...