Cosmology - Dark Energy Shock
A new paper on the reason for the accelerating expansion of the universe has come out.
From the news article

The universe is expanding at an accelerating rate because of ripples in space-time that stretch beyond the observable edges of the universe, according to a paper published in Physical Review Letters.

This is in stark contrast to the hypothesis that Dark Energy made the universe do it...

One further comment in the article stands out

Antonio Riotto at Italy's National Nuclear Physics Institute in Padova, who also worked on the research, told Reuters: "No mysterious dark energy is required. If dark energy were the size that theories predict ... it would have prevented the existence of everything we know in our cosmos."

So. let me get this straight. Scientists have to invent roughly 95% of the mass in the universe (70% dark energy, 26% Dark matter) in order to explain certain features and then it STILL doesn't add up?

You would think that as they can only find 4% of the total mass of the universe according to their model, it might be a clue that they need to fix their model. But, noooo. Instead they invent dark matter and dark energy. This stuff is treated as a veritable fact. It is assumed to exist without a second thought. Then someone comes along and points out an uncomfortable little point...even with their invention, their model still doesn't work.

I'm thinking maybe all this 'dark' stuff is simply an ironic way of leading us back into the 'dark' ages of science...
- posted by Alan Grey @ Wednesday, March 23, 2005