No unfortunately my pleasure reading is very limited these days. I am a bit removed from Astrophysics but I need to take more interest since my youngest daughter is expressing an interest in it. I try to keep up with the latest Cosmos and Wormhole shows on Discovery
I really feel like we are about to make a huge discovery in the next decade that will answer many key questions about gravity, and dark matter and possibly another Higgs Boson.
I'd like to treat you to a not-so-little, undiscovered gem of physics from my
physician. His effort stands also as a study of the politics of science.
This man is a rather genius individual who is (East) Indian and therefore had a serious mathematical and science educational experience...as well as his medical training. He moved to the U.S. to complete his residency and has practiced here for many years, now. Thus, professionally, he is an internist and has no 'standing' in the physical science community. However, since childhood he has been speculating on cosmological issues and has recently decided to publish his thoughts and findings. His principle propositions AND mathematical proofs are numbered in the dozens in his copyrighted document,
Propositions from the displacement of space by matter and the equivalence of Spacetime, General Field and Dark Energy.
Now it has been exactly 50 years since I was a physics student at Cal Berkeley...so my level of understanding is sharply diminished. But what he has written certainly passes my eyeball test and modest ability to evaluate the material. But guess what. He has submitted his paper(s) to many appropriate publications. And like an academic leper, he gets no looks from the physics publication community of editors. The document(s), because he isn't a name in the field, nor has the usual academic degrees, is sent back unread. (Nevertheless, I predict that sometime in the next decade you will be reading about a new view of gravity, not as one of the a primal force of the universe, but as a derivative and reactive activity of
displaced space!)
It's a bit complex, but here is basically how he describes his proposals. "
These propositions not only satisfy the empirical data such as Galileo’s principle, Newton’s Laws of motion, Einstein’s equivalence, the central tenets of Special and General Relativity, Uncertainty Principle, Entropic Principle and the Holographic Principle etc, they also give us valuable clues regarding the possibility of the Dark Energy as the underlying priori for the Universal constants, principles and Laws of Nature! Included in these propositions is a proposition regarding the limitation to the Maximum Density of matter and the Law of equilibrium of Density, displacement of space and Gravity, which play further role in the Black Hole dynamics and the fate of the Universe." His mathematical proofs are too complex to discuss here.
So here we are, with so very much happening in the world of science, and even with the stated goals of understanding the universe, physicists are seemingly just like some of the folks in the world of audio and most every other endeavor. They're involved in bias, politics, and closed mindedness to a generous degree.
Just imagine a post office employee trying to get published the General Theory of Relativity today. (Although, I guess not much has changed, since Einstein was ridiculed for that hypothesis for many years before it became a standard of physics.)
Sorry for extending the off-topic stuff.
Now back to your regularly scheduled debate.
