Einstein likely never said one of his most oft-quoted phrases

Credit: Wikimedia Commons/ Rebecca J. Rosen/ The Atlantic

Albert Einstein called the cosmological constant his "biggest blunder", right?

Quite likely, it never happened.

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/08/einstein-likely-never-said-one-of-his-most-oft-quoted-phrases/278508/ / tales biggest blunder problem bugging theory of general relativity universe stable theory Universe collapse collapsing collapsed steady state fixed physicists equations work 1917 Einstein introduced additional term into them expression expressed Greek letter lambda ƛ cosmological constant new term represented repulsive force would counter gravity gravity's attraction evidence mounted belief Universe's morionless motion motionlessness Universe expand expansion expanding equation intuition intuit cosmos concoction concocted contrivance preserve false assumption repeated thousands of times books journal articles across the disciplines discipline uttered phrase biggest blunder astrophysicist author Mario Livio documentation references physicist George Gamow posthumously published autobiography My World Line 1970 Scientific American article September 1956 Livio Brilliant Blunders thin sourcing Gamow brilliant physicist reputation student Ralph Alpher write paper astrophysicist Hans Bethe Alpher Bethe Gamow Einstein archive Jerusalem collection personally correspondence scientist famous physicist correspondence between Einstein Gamow confirm /