Cosmology did it to me again. First it started out by saying that the universe is expanding, but all its mutual gravity pulls against the expansion so the universe is actually slowing down and might just end by being pulled into a cosmic black hole. I thought this sounded a little extreme but it made sense, I could live with it.
Then cosmology said no, the universe has some sort of anti-gravity it calls a cosmological constant, and the universe isn’t slowing down after all and it’ll never end, it’ll coast forever. Oh really? Sure, I guess that’s interesting. Then cosmology said sorry, our mistake, no anti-gravity and yes, the universe really is slowing. Well, ok, not a problem for me.
Then cosmology said whoa Nelly! the universe is not only not slowing down, it’s actually speeding up, accelerating, tearing apart fast as it can and faster every minute for some extremely mysterious reason, we haven’t a clue what but we’ll say it’s Dark Energy. Guys!! That makes no sense at all! How can I accept that? Well, said cosmology, you’ll have to adjust and move on because that’s the way it is. So I did.
It wasn’t easy. I worked on it for ten years and finally I could write accelerating universe without putting quotes around it. And I learned to live in a universe that would end torn apart, lonely, black, and blank. But now, cosmology sidles up to me with a smirk and says, guess what? we think we smoothed the cosmic microwave background map too much and now we might have a systematic effect. And if we fix it, then it’s less likely that we need Dark Energy. . . I stopped listening. I can’t deal with it. I despair, I just don’t know what to believe any more.
Ok, I’m calmer now. With any luck, this is just a couple of unusually bold cosmologists talking. Maybe the rest of cosmology will re-group and say that the smoothing was not at all too much, or it was too much but that doesn’t matter, or there is a systematic effect but it’s just a little one, or there’s a big systematic effect but we still need Dark Energy. Maybe it will all go away.
Meanwhile, cosmology, — and I mean this — this is the fate of the universe we’re talking about and you simply have to stop changing your mind and every time convincing me this is God’s truth. Because as it is, cosmology, you and I are barely on speaking terms.
Graph credit: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss
Yes, well. As one who’s wrestled with this stuff, as a non-mathematical amateur, since the sixties, I’ve had to contend with strange particles, symmetry, string theory, unified field theory, dark matter, dark energy (I could go on) – only to end up with a kind of grand theory of everything; except that it doesn’t manage to explain 96% of the mass of the universe, nor the fourth force, gravity. Gravity, for God’s sake! Isn’t that a bit of a miss-out?
I’m encouraged, actually, because once they do crack it all, it’ll probably say ‘OK, you finally got it, that’s the end folks.’ and have to start all over again. Keep a close eye on those guys at CERN!
Cosmology is a fascinating topic, even though I do not comprehend 96% of it.
But there is hope. My best friend from high school – oh so long ago – did post-graduate work at MIT and the University of Budapest, and is today a tenured math professor at UWaterloo.
I have faith that my old friend can understand an additional 4%.
To me, this mean that science and faith are inextricably linked!
BTW – I always thought that Time was the fourth dimension, or “force”, and Gravity was fifth, or later. After all, Gravity cannot work, unless Time allows it to exert its influence.
Tim: I’ve always thought it funny that the force we know best is the one that stays the odd man out. Glad to know I’m in good company.
Dan: Your reasoning about science and faith is impeccable. My understanding is that time is a dimension, but not a force. And gravity is a force but the way it acts, by curving space, does get it mixed up with dimensions. However, I’m an English major in life and while my writing is always checked and presumably pretty accurate, my thinking is not.
It is my personal experience as a 7th/ 8th grade student that I have never quite understood cosmology or cosmologists reasoning as to how arrived as there accusation. It is also my personal option that they should just give it a rest because ,it is my understanding, that however the universe will end will not happen for some great deal of time and that when it does end their is nothing we can do about, so waste the time and resources to try and predict how the universe will meet it’s demise.
Even though the blog post is pretty jokey, I stand by my impatience with cosmology. But I don’t want to imply that cosmologists are making it up as they go, because they’re not. At all. They’re scientists doing the best they can, which is very good, with some hard and tricky measurements. You’re right that we can’t do a thing about the universe’s end. I think cosmologists just want to understand the whole universe as a single system, and that includes knowing how it ends. Is knowing its end is a waste of time? Not all cosmologists would disagree with you, if you know what I mean.
I was not trying to imply that cosmologist did not now what they were doing or are making it up as they go along, only that when the one receiving the information does not it can get very complicated very quickly, and that it would not hurt if the Ideas and Information need to be explained more. That why people like me have a better chance of sleeping at night rather than spending their time trying to figure out how the people figure all this out. I don’t think a who hour long detailed explanation is in order, just a simple ” we use this to do this” would suffice. And that when they don’t to people like me who are hopelessly confused by cosmology it seems like cosmologist should just pack it up.
Also I never thought about cosmoligist just rying to make a system, but now that you have written it, I don’t think there is anything wrong with that. It’s normal for humans to want systems.
And that’s why people like me, Heather, and Josie are science writers, so that lovely people like you can get some sleep at night.
“Inexplicably linked” is impeccable logic?
That’s just about as scientific as the force called Dick.
Sorry — I thought I was being funny. Dick Bond is serious, though.
My understanding of cosmology might be wide, but it’s definitely not deep …
Unfortunately, it does sometimes flounder on my dry sense of humour.
No offense intended. None taken.
Cheers!