Photo by Joshua Sortino on Unsplash
I take keyboard in hand this morning to simply scratch an itch I have for thinking about interesting things. It has nothing to do with rocks unless you think far off constellations are just big collections of rocks.
From my earliest memories of learning about cosmology and physics, I have had a bias against the use of “dark matter” and “dark energy” in the current standard theories of gravitation and cosmology to explain things like the accelerating expansion of the universe and black holes. I’ve always thought these theories were like modifying jigsaw puzzle pieces to make them fit. They don’t really explain anything. They just push the answers off to new and different unexplained questions.
To make this more specific, consider the expansion of the universe. (Just one of the mysterious cosmological questions we can’t explain.)
Cosmologists have known since 1998 that the universe is expanding at an accelerated rate. Classical physics (that is, the physics invented by Sir Isaac Newton) can’t explain it. Simply put, the really distant objects in space are moving away from us at an increasing velocity. Some cosmologists have speculated that in the far distant future, the night sky will be completely black because they have all receded too far away to be seen.
A few points to keep in mind …
Nobody is claiming that the universe isn’t actually expanding. The evidence is too strong. Three Nobel prizes have been awarded for discovering this.
The reason “dark matter” and “dark energy” were theorized is to find some explanation for the accelerating expansion of the universe.
There is no physical evidence for dark matter or dark energy. That’s why they’re called, “dark”. You can’t see anything or measure anything EXCEPT the phenomena they were invented to explain. I have made a pest of myself in several science lectures until the distinguished speaker admitted that no physical evidence exists.
In spite of this, the dark matter theory has hardened like cement in the community of scientists. It’s almost universal dogma now. Search for recent popular science books about dark matter. You could fill the empty library shelves in Florida.
But I have never had an alternative to offer. Nobody has. In terms of classical physics, it just doesn’t make any sense.
Until now.
Just this morning, surfing the web, I stumbled across one. The inventor (I think) of this new idea is an Indiana oncologist (cancer doctor) named Chris Watson.
Knowing almost nothing about Chris Watson, I like him already. He reminds me of the story of plate tectonics and a meteorologist named Alfred Wegener. Wegener invented plate tectonics in spite of the fact that he was working way outside of his field and in the teeth – sharp, threatening teeth – of almost universal condemnation by all of the “real” geologists of his day. Rather than considering his proposals thoughtfully, the typical geologist response was, “Why does this @!&!!#% weatherman think he can lecture us about geology?”
But Wegener was right and they were wrong. It took fifty years before the “real” geologists admitted that Wegener had been right all along.
An earlier episode of science is also relevant. For centuries, the theory of “aether” was accepted by just about the entire science community. The problem that “aether” explained was how light and gravity were propagated. Isaac Newton relied on it.
We’re still working on that one. One use of “dark energy” is to explain away some of the same questions that “aether” was supposed to answer. Einstein’s theories about relativity has buried the old “aether theory” completely today.
It's worth noting at this point that these false steps are evidence for science … not against it. The “scientific method” is STILL the only path to understanding the universe we live in. The fact that science discovered it’s own mistakes and self-corrected is the best reason to continue to have confidence in science.
Chris Watson calls his new idea ESF – Entropy Scale Factor. And before I get into my own inadequate explanation, you should read Watson’s own introduction at his web site:
Returning to the expanding universe, the current theory – there is dark matter out there (that we can’t see) – was invented because there just isn’t enough mass for Isaac Newton’s classical physics to explain the expanding universe. Dark matter is all that missing mass that “has to be there” to make Newton’s equations work.
In Newton’s classical explanation, gravity is the force of attraction that exists between mass objects – like you and the Earth. Or the Earth and the Moon. Or the Earth and Alpha Centauri (four and a half light years away). Any masses. According to the dark matter theory, the universe needs more mass … a LOT more mass … to hold it together.
ESF says that the force of gravity isn’t constant everywhere. It changes according to the amount of “entropy” present and that changes according to the “possible microstates of position and momentum for objects within a gravitational field” (Watson). In other words, the more disorder and randomness exists, the more gravity there is. And Watson has equations to show you how that works. So we don’t need more mass (i.e. – dark matter), we just need more gravitational force. ESF states that the force exists and tells us why.
This is cutting edge stuff! The earliest date I can find for Watson’s theory is just last year – 2022. His latest scientific paper is dated July of THIS year. That’s just last month, folks! It would take longer than that for one of the “real” science journals to even get around to thinking about possibly considering whether to maybe evaluate Watson’s idea. In the meantime, Watson has published in places where his work can be accepted:
worldscientific.com
physicsessays.org
researchgate.net
Remember! You saw it here first!
I love the vastness of whatever is out there to the smallest particles making up beautiful rocks/stones/minerals. Truly in Awe . Thank you for sharing this!