This is an interesting article which highlights the relationship between theoretical and experimental physics. Theories are proposed that make certain predictions, as Einstein’s Theory of Relativity did, but the available experimental know how and technology of his day made some of his predictions impossible to confirm or deny. As time has gone on, certain predictions Einstein made have come to have experimental, observable evidence to support them. One of those predictions about the existence of gravitation waves, made over a hundred years ago, now has some evidence to support the prediction.

“More generally, it means that a century of innovation, testing, questioning and plain hard work after Einstein imagined it on paper, scientists have finally tapped into the deepest register of physical reality, where the weirdest and wildest implications of Einstein’s universe become manifest.”

More on this recent discovery along with a discussion of the value of such scientific discovery.

“Too often people ask, what’s the use of science like this, if it doesn’t produce faster cars or better toasters. But people rarely ask the same question about a Picasso painting or a Mozart symphony. Such pinnacles of human creativity change our perspective of our place in the universe. Science, like art, music and literature, has the capacity to amaze and excite, dazzle and bewilder. I would argue that it is that aspect of science — its cultural contribution, its humanity — that is perhaps its most important feature.”

Other predictions Einstein made that were later proven correct.

http://discovermagazine.com/2015/april/12-putting-relativity-to-the-test

And a great video from the Tonight Show explaining what all this is about.