Saturday 31 January 2009

Dark Matter & Dark Energy Again!

There were two TV programmes the other evening explaining where Astronomers were in their understanding of these two forces, discovered relatively recently. They were fascinating programmes with some very impressive photographs and computer graphics. Fascinated though I was, the programmes left me feeling frustrated at the attitude of the scientists who took part. Can anyone answer the following questions?

a) How can scientists continue to promote theories and ‘guesstimates’ as if they were facts after all the past changes in scientific thinking as knowledge has been accumulated over the years?

b) Instruments being used now are much more sophisticated than formerly and the Hubble telescope in particular has expanded our ability to actually see distant galaxies by a huge factor. Why do scientists persist in giving the impression that these are the ultimate when experience suggests the reverse? What will the instruments of 1000 years from now reveal? I suggest our knowledge of the universe will be increased by a factor far greater than our present knowledge is compared to Galileo’s!

c) The foregoing being so and the whole of science, not just astronomy and particle Physics, having demonstrated many times the fallacy of accepting the latest theories as absolute, why do modern scientists fall into the same trap? Nothing that the mind of man working through his finite brain can devise or imagine in connection with the universe can possibly be absolute.

d) Because of our obsession with establishing absolute limits to everything, the people investigating the universe today give the impression that now Dark Matter and Dark Energy have been discovered (but not even minutely understood) there is nothing new for us to discover. They feel it is sensible therefore to build theories based on the present state of our knowledge. Of course what else can they do? They can’t build theories on what has not yet been discovered. Why not? Einstein’s General Theory accurately predicted that the universe is expanding. (Although Einstein couldn’t accept it and thought there must be an error in the theory) Also, what about the Particle Physicists String Theory? This predicts the existence of 16 different dimensions! (Only four of which have yet been discovered) It is prompting a lot of research however. I very much doubt if new discoveries have been exhausted by Dark Matter and Dark Energy.

As to what the various scientific disciplines should be investigating, see my posts of 15th January and yesterday.

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