August 28, 2004
INFINITE IGNORANCE:
The Role Of Particle Physics In A New Universe (SPX, Aug 26, 2004)
A string of recent discoveries in astronomy has left scientists with an unsettling realization: The stuff we know and understand makes up less than 5 percent of the universe. The rest has to be yet-unknown forms of "dark matter" and "dark energy."At a time of momentous changes in our basic understanding of the universe, a new document outlines the essential role of particle physics in deciphering the laws of nature that govern dark matter, dark energy and more.
Hey, did you hear about that stupid tribe of Indians that can't count? If only they were as wise as we. Posted by Orrin Judd at August 28, 2004 6:13 AM
Someday "dark matter" will be in the same category as the aether, N-rays and phlogiston-- substances invented in ignorance.
Then the Lord answered the scientists out of the whirlwind, and said, "Who are these that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?" Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me.
"Are there undiscovered principles of nature: new symmetries, new physical laws? How can you solve the mystery of dark energy? Are there extra dimensions of space? Do all forces become one? Why are there so many kinds of particles? What is dark matter? What are neutrinos telling you? How did the universe come to be? What happened to the antimatter?"
Then the scientists answered the Lord, and said, Behold, we are proud in our ignorance, for we are able to hold two conflicting theories in our minds at the same time, and have faith that this will force them to reconcile.
Posted by: jd watson at August 28, 2004 12:17 PM
Mr. Ortega;
I think not. We can see that the observable matter in galaxies isn't enough to hold them together against their rotation. So there's something there that isn't visible - i.e. "dark" matter.
While many fanciful things are proposed for dark matter, it may well turn out to be exactly that - matter that doesn't happen to glow. We have no knowledge whatever of what lies in the depths of interstellar space. For all we know, it's filled with chunks of matter that weren't large enough to form stars. Or burnt out stars from the early universe. If you want to see some dark matter for yourself, look up in to the night sky at the Milkway. Those dark patches are dark matter.
Posted by: Annoying Old Guy at August 28, 2004 12:44 PMAOG - (a) Brown dwarfs, it's well established now, can't supply the missing material. (b) The dust in the Milky Way that leads to those dark spots is not dark matter - it is bright in the infrared, only dark in the optical, whereas the missing matter is dark at all frequencies. (c) To be dark at all frequencies, the missing matter has to not interact, or interact extremely weakly, with electromagnetic forces. No such matter is currently known to exist. So it's a puzzle for particle physics. (d) You're right about the gravitational evidence seemingly demanding dark matter's existence, as does some cosmological evidence.
Posted by: pj at August 28, 2004 1:25 PMDark matter on some level certainly exists--we're it. One worrying thing is that on larger and larger scales, there's more and more of it relative to "light" matter. There are certainly reasons for that, but it does make one wonder about one's assumptions leading to such results...
Dark energy, on the other hand, rests on a fairly flimsy nail...
Posted by: brian at August 28, 2004 2:30 PMAll science is based on ignorance, Orrin.
That's why scientists ask questions.
Sometimes they get answers, sometimes not.
But it ill behooves someone who believes in witches to chide them for their ignorance.
Posted by: Harry Eagar at August 28, 2004 7:13 PMHarry:
Perhaps it's not their ignorance, for we all suffer from that malady, but their arrogance which is sometimes the problem.
I don't think Orrin believes Witchcraft is effective or based on truth, but only that witches do, in fact, exist and are dangerous to a society.
Posted by: jd watson at August 28, 2004 9:07 PMPeople who can't count probably don't know what apparent dark matter is either.
Posted by: Joseph Hertzlinger at August 29, 2004 1:55 AMHarry:
Posted by: oj at August 29, 2004 3:35 PM
Why is scientific arrogance any worse than anybody else's?
Orrin does not, so far as I know, actually burn witches, though there are some in N.H., but practices a secularist live and let live tolerance.
However, the antiscientific religious moralists who really did burn witches really did believe the witches controlled unholy and occult powers.
Whether witches who believe, inaccurately, that they can, for example, dry up cows with spells, are a greater threat to society than perverts who think old women can dry up cows and therefore need to be burned alive is a question I'd be happy to debate.
I'm taking the side of the old women. You can have the Dominicans.
Posted by: Harry Eagar at August 29, 2004 7:33 PMHarry:
We've decided as a society to suffer them to live. It's a mistake, but we're less serious people than our ancestors in most ways.
Posted by: oj at August 29, 2004 7:45 PM"that stupid tribe of Indians that can't count"
And here I thought this had been cleared up already... It's not that they CAN'T count, they WON'T count. Big difference.
Posted by: Eugene S. at August 29, 2004 7:51 PMEugene:
Not if you ask for 5 copies of the Theory of Relativity.
Posted by: oj at August 29, 2004 8:05 PMOrrin,
Are you perhaps secretly a Zen buddhist?
Some of your ultra-short utterances are so cryptic, yet at the same time tantalizingly within reach of understanding, that they resemble a koan more than anything else.
Or maybe this blog is actually a fiendishly clever intelligence test, to weed out the slow of wit.
Posted by: Eugene S. at August 29, 2004 8:28 PMWhen you can grasp the pebble from my hand you get to move on....
Posted by: oj at August 29, 2004 8:34 PMJust be glad that the cows nearest your grandmother were good milkers, Orrin.
Posted by: Harry Eagar at August 30, 2004 7:54 PMIt was a dairy.
Posted by: oj at August 30, 2004 8:06 PM