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> inventing undetectable dark this or dark that sounds way more kookier than this It's not really "invented". People get stuck on names way too much, forgettin
by Florin_Andrei 9y ago
> inventing undetectable dark this or dark that sounds way more kookier than this
It's not really "invented". People get stuck on names way too much, forgetting these are simply placeholders, stopgap measures for a still incomplete, but evolving, understanding of nature.
- lstodd 9y agoYou are right, 'inventing' the wrong word, and the same can be said about 'kooky'. Still, gravitation waves were detected, while darks were not.
- KGIII 9y agoI'm pretty sure the two names of 'dark matter' and 'dark energy' have caused more confusion than anything else in modern science. They were horrible choices that were worse than even the 'god particle.' Horrible. Explaining they are placeholders has actually eaten up a fair amount of my time. I'm betting I've probably spent days, if we total the hours up, explaining just that. (I like to go make science simple for people. Having to explain that it is a placeholder doesn't make it easy. So much wasted time.)
- Florin_Andrei 9y agoI agree that the name choices were unfortunate.