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Scientific method: defending the integrity of physics
- ivan_ah 11y agoThis article is a very tact-full way of calling bullshit on dark matter and dark energy. For a bit of context, dark matter is simply a placeholder name physicists give to explain an anomaly in the observed rotation of far-from-centre stars in galaxies---using our best estimates of the total mass in in the galaxy, we would expect the rotational speed of galaxies to fall off, the further they are from the centre of rotation. The observation does not match the expected behaviour, so somebody just said "there must some sort of mass in the galaxy that we don't see" and picked a peppy name for it: dark matter. Similarly, dark energy is an invention to explain the observed rate of expansion of the universe. Current observations about the expansion of the universe don't follow from what we know about the balance of mass (collapse-tending) and energy (expansion-tending) in the universe, so physicists postulate "there must be something energy-like which we don't know about" and call that thing 'dark energy.' A more intellectually honest terms for dark matter and dark energy would be: invented concept to harmonize observations with other things we believe to be true. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galaxy_rotation_curve http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galaxy_rotation_curve