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Re: There's such a thing as knowing when you're licked, and I believe I am. Dreaded Anomaly Send a noteboard - 17/05/2011 02:09:40 AM
Statements like that are what make me nervous, because you seem to be saying we know exotic dark matter is out there and are now simply refining our understanding of that known substance. Another unhypothesized approach might be accurate, but we've already found the answer so we won't bother looking for it. If you're just saying direct detection experiments will narrow the space of all possible theories that's different, of course, but if you're saying dark matter has been proven by default and we're just seeking experimental and observational evidence to better describe what we know to exist we're back where we started: We've never directly detected it, but we know it's there, so let's keep looking till we find it. Whether it actually IS there or not. I'm not confident that we'll quickly realize if it's not there because it's impossible to prove a negative; that's why there are still people looking for proton decay despite the fact it's not only unlikely to occur, but unlikely to be detectable in any reproducable way even if it does.


The evidence we have points very strongly toward dark matter being exotic. (This is what, the dozenth time I've said this?) That means that most physicists are going to focus on those avenues. Some physicists will continue to focus on other avenues. This is how research works in any field.

Your problem seems to be that you're tossing around these qualitative "worries" without any quantitative analysis. When you do this, every concern seems like it's all or nothing; this is virtually never actually the case. The repeated comparisons to proton decay (a subject actively researched by only a handful of people) demonstrate how divorced your worrying is from quantitative reality.
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Exciting video about the universe - 28/04/2011 10:14:55 AM 1388 Views
Cool, and true *NM* - 28/04/2011 11:46:29 AM 487 Views
I still think dark matter's just non-luminous matter without a convenient light source to reflect. - 28/04/2011 10:34:21 PM 1098 Views
We've just about ruled out the idea that dark matter is just non-luminous "ordinary" matter. - 28/04/2011 11:44:34 PM 1035 Views
I'm aware of the Bullet Cluster, though admittedly not much more than that. - 29/04/2011 01:52:49 AM 947 Views
Re: I'm aware of the Bullet Cluster, though admittedly not much more than that. - 29/04/2011 02:56:32 AM 1061 Views
Re: I'm aware of the Bullet Cluster, though admittedly not much more than that. - 30/04/2011 05:02:49 PM 1009 Views
Re: I'm aware of the Bullet Cluster, though admittedly not much more than that. - 30/04/2011 08:56:35 PM 954 Views
Re: I'm aware of the Bullet Cluster, though admittedly not much more than that. - 02/05/2011 01:28:30 AM 931 Views
Re: I'm aware of the Bullet Cluster, though admittedly not much more than that. - 04/05/2011 04:18:18 AM 1017 Views
There's such a thing as knowing when you're licked, and I believe I am. - 07/05/2011 02:04:53 AM 1112 Views
Re: There's such a thing as knowing when you're licked, and I believe I am. - 09/05/2011 11:28:48 PM 934 Views
Re: There's such a thing as knowing when you're licked, and I believe I am. - 14/05/2011 05:36:45 AM 904 Views
Re: There's such a thing as knowing when you're licked, and I believe I am. - 17/05/2011 02:09:40 AM 969 Views
Re: There's such a thing as knowing when you're licked, and I believe I am. - 19/05/2011 04:55:21 AM 905 Views
Re: There's such a thing as knowing when you're licked, and I believe I am. - 24/05/2011 09:32:27 PM 977 Views
The Pati-Salam model was the one I had in mind. - 24/05/2011 10:34:04 PM 924 Views
Re: The Pati-Salam model was the one I had in mind. - 24/05/2011 11:08:01 PM 1146 Views
Re: The Pati-Salam model was the one I had in mind. - 25/05/2011 01:27:10 AM 952 Views
Re: The Pati-Salam model was the one I had in mind. - 31/05/2011 09:16:18 AM 1020 Views
Also, re: lensing from ordinary matter: - 29/04/2011 05:18:47 AM 950 Views
This seems like another example of what confuses the issue. - 30/04/2011 05:25:04 PM 1080 Views
Re: This seems like another example of what confuses the issue. - 30/04/2011 08:56:40 PM 1049 Views
That discussion seems to reduce to "as little new and exotic physics as possible". - 02/05/2011 01:29:03 AM 1045 Views
Re: I still think... (apparently, there is a 100 character limit on subjects, and yours was 99) - 28/04/2011 11:57:15 PM 1405 Views
Seems to happen to me a lot; sorry. - 29/04/2011 12:56:14 AM 943 Views
None of this reflects on the actual facts of dark matter. - 29/04/2011 01:32:52 AM 970 Views
I concede my grasp (or grope) is a somewhat superficial laymans, yes. - 30/04/2011 04:30:28 PM 1094 Views
Re: I concede my grasp (or grope) is a somewhat superficial laymans, yes. - 30/04/2011 08:56:44 PM 909 Views
Re: I concede my grasp (or grope) is a somewhat superficial laymans, yes. - 02/05/2011 01:28:58 AM 1436 Views
Re: I concede my grasp (or grope) is a somewhat superficial laymans, yes. - 04/05/2011 04:18:27 AM 915 Views
I don't object to changing my mind, but can take more convincing than I really should. - 07/05/2011 02:05:09 AM 1178 Views
Re: I don't object to changing my mind, but can take more convincing than I really should. - 09/05/2011 11:32:17 PM 1049 Views

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