Gravitational Lensing - Einstein's Unfinished Symphony
  Gravitational lensing - the deflection of light rays by gravitating matter -
has become a major tool in the armoury of the modern cosmologist. Proposed
nearly a hundred years ago as a key feature of Einstein's theory of General
Relativity, we trace the historical development since its verification at a
solar eclipse in 1919. Einstein was apparently cautious about its practical
utility and the subject lay dormant observationally for nearly 60 years.
Nonetheless there has been rapid progress over the past twenty years. The
technique allows astronomers to chart the distribution of dark matter on large
and small scales thereby testing predictions of the standard cosmological model
which assumes dark matter comprises a massive weakly-interacting particle. By
measuring distances and tracing the growth of dark matter structure over cosmic
time, gravitational lensing also holds great promise in determining whether the
dark energy, postulated to explain the accelerated cosmic expansion, is a
vacuum energy density or a failure of General Relativity on large scales. We
illustrate the wide range of applications which harness the power of
gravitational lensing, from searches for the earliest galaxies magnified by
massive clusters to those for extrasolar planets which temporarily brighten a
background star. We summarise the future prospects with dedicated ground and
space-based facilities designed to exploit this remarkable physical phenomenon.
