Crisis In The Cosmos?

Science News Online ^ | 10-13-2005 | Ron Cowen

[Bernard Marx]

I agree with most of what you write, except to say there's very little academic Marxism in the hard sciences.

It's hard not to paint with a broad brush in these short posts. Have you read -- or tried to read -- Scientific American lately? Political correctness had permeated the magazine last time I checked. Maybe that's media Marxism, not academic Marxism, but it serves as a filter to the public in presenting scientific issues. What I also had in mind when posting was the Sagan model. I consider astronomy a "hard" science; I don't know how you'd define it. Where was the broad scientific community in opposing his outrageous Nuclear Winter model?

You have my total agreement on Kennewick-NAGPRA. The legislation was indeed pernicious and it's disgusting to see pols and bureaucracies like BIA and the Corps of Engineers playing to race-and-religion-based "entitlement" voting blocs anytime but especially when scientific integrity is at risk.

[js1138]

We're seeing more of the scientist-as-Indiana Jones stuff.

I'm at a loss as to how you could have more than in the past. I think Indy is just a slight exaggeration of some of the characters from the 1930s and before.

[RightWhale]

anyone even bothered looking at the possibility?

The raisin bread model has been considered, but the math is not especially neat. Since the presence of a cosmologist is not required to run a Mixmaster, the model does not usually make it to the Cosmologists International, Inc. meeting agenda.

[stremba]

Why must one either believe in science or believe in God? Why can't both be true? Why the false dichotomy?

[Bernard Marx]

I'm at a loss as to how you could have more than in the past.

Maybe you're right; having just seen the Tut exhibit I had thoughts about Carter and Carnavon and American "Egyptmania" as I was posting. But it seems to me that there's much greater opportunity (and temptation) to generate media hype now than in years past, with movies, TV, DVDs, etc. I also believe that some of the academic dogma of the past is now being exposed and that's a good thing.

[Dick Vomer]

I believe in both and not to the exclusion of the other.

you can believe in both, that was my point...... up to a point.

[Dick Vomer]

I'm a "hanger on".... just like to read about the physics of the cosmos and then try to think of the distances and the amount of energy involved. My comments about the article are more about the particular "feeling" it left me with rather than the facts that were presented.....

Sometimes when I read these articles about the cosmos, it makes a person feel very, very, very... small.

Ok, back to the grindstone.... let's talk some FOOTBALL!!!!! {;-)

[Physicist]

Ok, back to the grindstone.... let's talk some FOOTBALL!!!!! {;-)

The gridiron, you mean. Unfortunately, there's no football this weekend: both the Eagles and the Hokies have the week off.

[Gumlegs]

anyone even bothered looking at the possibility?

Not only haven't I looked at the possiblilty, I tend to hide under the bed whenever it's discussed.

[PatrickHenry]

Placemarker

[RightWingAtheist]

Here's another example of political correctness crippling science and the left bowing before mysticism and superstition. Please note the irony of the source, Gerard. It's my school's paper, and I have to put up with it. :-/

[stremba]

Then we have no disagreement. I suspect there's a lot more people that feel as we do as well.

[R. Scott]

They construct tentative theories to explain observatrional data, bandy them around as if they're the absolute truth, and then profess they're in a crisis when (almost inevitably) something doesn't fit.

Not quite. The theories are bandied about – to obtain input from others. Only when the theory can not be disproved, and after the observational data has been duplicated by independent researches does the theory begin to carry weight. I have yet to read where a reputable theorist has claimed to have found the “absolute truth” in cosmology. The cry of “crisis” or similar cries are usually coming from our media, not from science.

[R. Scott]

...that there is no observational evidence for dark matter.

It is my understanding that the evidence does come from direct observation. We do not need to directly observe something to know it is there (the wind?). In this case, the orbits of stars in galaxies do not conform to what should be expected from the amount of observable mass in the galaxy. There must be more mass than can be observed. The only conclusion is that there is unobservable (dark) mass (matter) present to account for the observed orbits.

[SunkenCiv]

Bernard Marx: There may have been others earlier (Isaac Asimov's politically-tinged rigidly atheistic science popularizations come to mind) but one of the great abusers was Carl Sagan and his coterie of Lefties. He parlayed his own political views into massive media hype via his PBS series, appearances on the Johnny Carson Show, his books and doomsday theories like Nuclear Winter. I was a charter member of the Planetary Society but opted out when I realized I was helping fund what was essentially a left-wing political "front" group.

Bears repeating, but not pingin' BMarx, as this is from six months ago.

[SunkenCiv]

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