Giant space-time ripples may cause cosmic expansion

New Scientist (U.K.) ^ | March 18, 2005 | Maggie McKee

[snarks_when_bored]

Yes, you're quite right. I missed your thread entirely. Dang.

[PatrickHenry]

Nothing wrong with this thread. It's certainly not a duplication. But coming on so soon after the earlier one, I don't know if I should ping the list again.

[snarks_when_bored]

Understood. Probably don't need to. A lot of 'em might see this one, anyway.

[RadioAstronomer]

Thanks for the ping. Sorry for being off for a bit. I like both threads. :-)

[itsahoot]

Yeah, the idea was so obvious, you didn't even bother to write it up... (smile)

I was messing around with my wristwatch calculator and came up with the exact same conclusion.

Sean Carroll, a cosmologist at the University of Chicago, US, says, "I don't really understand what they're doing.

[snarks_when_bored]

Sean Carroll has posted a more detailed discussion of what he's calling the KMNR idea. Carroll is skeptical, but doesn't yet have a knockdown argument against it.

[snarks_when_bored]

Luboš Motl weighs in on KMNR gravitational ripples, offering reasons and references to quite recent articles that seek to show that the ripples explanation of accelerating cosmic expansion won't work.

It's not dead yet, Jim...but it's on life support.

[snarks_when_bored]

It appears that the KMNR idea isn't going to work. Sean Carroll has a run-down (with references to recent articles) here. His final paragraph is worth quoting:

"What would be really nice, even if the ultimate consensus settles down to a judgment that KMNR weren't right, is if people understood that this is the way science works. Individual papers may be right or wrong; but they are put out there for the community to debate about, different critiques are put forward, and eventually the truth comes out. Everyone is after the same thing, trying to figure out how the universe works. Something our creationist friends will never quite appreciate."