Posted on 08/02/2002 8:14:32 PM PDT by medved
The new issue of the "Scientific American" contains an article which appears to amount to hedging its bets on the question of "dark matter", and at least recognizing the potential which the idea (dark matter) has for making scientists look stupid.
In the universe at large, things which appear roundish or which lack any particular shape are dominated by gravitational forces, while things which appear orderly such as spiral galaxies, are necessarily controlled by something vastly stronger, such as electromagnetic forces. In some cases, this is glaringly obvious.
A good example is the spiral galaxy shown above. The arms, particularly the upper arm, show material being held in a straight line until some point at which the field breaks down, after which material very quickly trails away and dissipates.
Again, this is obvious and nobody should need to be Albert Einstein to comprehend it. There is no conceivable way gravity could do something like that.
Astronomers, however, are for the most part wedded to a sort of an ideological doctrine which states that all such phenomena are controlled by gravity and inertia, and within the framework of that doctrine, things like dark matter are mathematically necessary.
Scientists not wedded to the doctrine refer to dark matter and similar notions as "Fabricated Ad-hoc Inventions Repeatedly Invoked in an Effort to Defend Untenable Scientific Theories", or FAIRIE DUST.
One internet resource for people looking for more serious answers to cosmological problems than "dark matter" is Don Scott's Electric Cosmos Site.
"Scientific American" is on the list of things which I do not patronize but what I gathered looking at the thing in the magazine rack at WallMart this morning is that the article looks into the possibility of dumping "dark matter" and simply changing the equations governing the cosmos, i.e. changing the laws of physics. The term "MOND", or MOdified Newtonian Dynamics occurs. Scott and others like him of course take a sort of a dim view of all such machinations
Since my PhD is in this area of physics, I think I am a slightly better judge of whether this nut is a crank than you are.
I told you this would be a good show!
What you are missing is that these folks are nuts in a straight descent from Lyndon LaRouche and the Fusion Energy Foundation. According to their view the reason that we have not discovered fusion is a British plot. You see we all follow Newtonian physics, which the British wanted us to do because they then had mastery of the necessary principals of military science and could maintain their empire. If we were instead inculcated into the principals of the Gottingen school of hydrodynamics fusion would be easy - but on the other hand, cannonballs would no longer be confined to their approximately parabolic arcs and the empire would fall.
Continuing the consipiracy started by Newton, the next Blue Blooded co-conspirator is James Clark Maxwell who invented the flawed British version of electromagnetism. If would had followed some other theory of Electro Magnetism we would no longer be trying to understand the dynamics of galaxies in terms of gravitation, however well it actually works for that purpose.
I kid you not.
To admit such would be tantamount to permitting the existence of God, thus I doubt his answer will be yes.
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