Sep 7, 2023 02:36 PM
https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/...rated-lie/
INTRO: One of the most exciting things that can happen to a scientist is the discovery of evidence that appears to contradict the predictions of the leading theories of your field. In some cases that you can imagine, the evidence would immediately be revolutionary. For particle physics, that would be like seeing strong, direct evidence of a new fundamental particle that was not predicted by the Standard Model. For astronomy, it would be like discovering a massive, evolved galaxy whose stars were twice the known age of the Universe. And for biology, it would be like watching a creature give birth to an organism that was an entirely different species than its parent.
But in most cases — particularly in a mature field of science that’s accumulated and successfully accounted for an enormous suite of facts and knowledge — these apparent contradictions will turn out to have a mundane explanation behind them, not a revolutionary one. In recent years, many have been claiming that there’s a crisis in cosmology, and that in particular a series of observations, including:
all point to a coming, and necessary, scientific revolution. Despite what you might have read recently, however, this is a minority opinion — even a fringe opinion — in the field of cosmology. Here’s the truth about where our current understanding is... (MORE - missing details)
INTRO: One of the most exciting things that can happen to a scientist is the discovery of evidence that appears to contradict the predictions of the leading theories of your field. In some cases that you can imagine, the evidence would immediately be revolutionary. For particle physics, that would be like seeing strong, direct evidence of a new fundamental particle that was not predicted by the Standard Model. For astronomy, it would be like discovering a massive, evolved galaxy whose stars were twice the known age of the Universe. And for biology, it would be like watching a creature give birth to an organism that was an entirely different species than its parent.
But in most cases — particularly in a mature field of science that’s accumulated and successfully accounted for an enormous suite of facts and knowledge — these apparent contradictions will turn out to have a mundane explanation behind them, not a revolutionary one. In recent years, many have been claiming that there’s a crisis in cosmology, and that in particular a series of observations, including:
- the fact that different methods of measuring the expansion rate yield different results,
- that big, bright, evolved galaxies appear seemingly too early in JWST data,
- and that predictions from dark matter simulations don’t match the internal motions of stars within galaxies,
all point to a coming, and necessary, scientific revolution. Despite what you might have read recently, however, this is a minority opinion — even a fringe opinion — in the field of cosmology. Here’s the truth about where our current understanding is... (MORE - missing details)