EDIT: Let’s cool it with the downvotes, dudes. We’re not out to cut funding to your black hole detection chamber or revoke the degrees of chiropractors just because a couple of us don’t believe in it, okay? Chill out, participate with the prompt and continue with having a nice day. I’m sure almost everybody has something to add.

  • @rockandsock@lemmy.world
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    121 year ago

    I don’t think that we currently know enough about physics to say for sure that faster than light travel is impossible.

    I think it’s likely that there are still scientific breakthroughs to be discovered that will make currently impossible things possible.

  • @Commiunism@lemmy.wtf
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    331 year ago

    IQ score is a sham - the tests are quite fallible, and historically they were used as a justification to discriminate against people who are poorer or with worse access to education. Nowadays, I see it quite a lot in the context of eugenics, where some professors and philosophers attribute poor people being poor due to their low intelligence (low IQ score), and that they can’t be helped while rich people got where they are due to their intelligence (as in they have a high IQ score on average).

  • The idea that SSRI antidepressants work by increasing serotonin levels. If that were the case, why don’t they start working immediately? Instead, most people don’t see positive effects for several weeks.

    • @OhNoMoreLemmy@lemmy.ml
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      51 year ago

      I was listening to a sleep scientist the other day and they were saying that one thing we know is that depressed people have more rem sleep on average, and SSRIs decrease the amount of rem sleep.

      If it is something sleep based that goes some way to explaining why it takes time to have an effect. Building up or wiping out a sleep debt can’t happen instantaneously.

      • Guy Dudeman
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        31 year ago

        That’s interesting… because I always thought that REM sleep was the most important part of sleep, and more was better.

        In fact, I read an article once that suggested that REM sleep was when our spinal fluid flushed all the waste material out of our brains at night (which leads to the types of dream that occur during REM sleep), which is also a process that prevents brains from being clogged with waste material.

        I always thought that our brains being filled with waste material was part of depression, and that flushing out that waste material would help our brains function more correctly.

        Sounds like the opposite - like, our depressed brains are depressed because they think too much?

    • @banneryear1868@lemmy.world
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      11 year ago

      They can’t work immediately because the body isn’t producing enough serotonin to have an immediate effect, nor would you want that. Over time serotonin reuptake is slowed and eventually this has a cognitive effect. That doesn’t help everyone but that doesn’t make them ineffective.

    • @ChexMax@lemmy.world
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      111 year ago

      Plus the idea that SSRIs work, period. They only work slightly better than placebo, and they count them as “working” as long as they help with a single symptom. So if they don’t help your depression at all, but they do help with your insomnia, they put that in the “it worked!” pile. That’s why suicide risk sometimes increases on SSRIs. They do nothing for your crippling depression except increase your motivation, so before you were depressed and couldn’t accomplish anything, and now you’re depressed, but also have the wherewithal to follow through on your suicide plan.

      • @dingus@lemmy.world
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        51 year ago

        I have been having some mental health issues, and I was reading about this the other day. I was going through wikipedia with the various types of antidepressants, and it seems that SSRIs are just barely better than placebo, or even in studies not even better than placebo.

        I know there are multiple classes of antidepressants out there. Are there any that do a better job, even if they are not as common?

        • Gnome Kat
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          11 year ago

          I duno about any that work, but if a dr offers you effexor tell them hell fucking no. Everyone I have talked to about it agrees its fucking absolutely awful. Worst drug I have ever taken.

            • Gnome Kat
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              Effexor has some awful side effects. I have seen people complain about brain zaps but I didn’t get them. For me I kept getting this weird lagging feeling in my body, like my perception of my limbs was lagging behind where they were in this very weird feeling way. Its very hard to explain but it was very uncomfortable feeling, every movement of my head was accompanied with this weird feeling. After I quit the drug the issue persisted for months after, it was legit fucked I was scared it would never go away but eventually it did.

              Also effexor triggered multiple manic episodes where I was hearing voices and didn’t sleep for a week. Like legit psychosis. I haven’t had any episodes that bad before taking effexor and none since I quit it as well. I can honestly say it made my mental health issues infinitely worse, shit is a demon drug. TBH I don’t fuck with psych drugs anymore because of my experience with effexor.

        • @Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
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          31 year ago

          There’s different definitions of depression, for one.

          And “do a better job” is going to be defined by the individual.

          But there are SSRIs, SNRIs and SDRIs like Wellbutrin. They have vastly different side effects and play on different systems (serotonin, norepinephrine and dopamine) many people find SNRIs to be more effective, but again it’s all the individual.

        • If you’re suffering from depression, look into Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS). After over a decade on SSRIs and other meds had failed, it turned my life around in six months. Literally life saving.

          The effectiveness is proven (at much better rates than SSRIs), but the exact mechanism is under study.

          But… There was a recent study that suggested that many cases of depression are caused by misordered neuron firing, where the emotional center of the brain fires before the “imagine the future” bit finishes firing. Normally, when a healthy brain imagines a future state, the emotional center fires in response to our anticipated feeling. (Imagination: We’re going to the movies. Emotions: FUN) But in a depressed brain, the emotional core fires immediately, resulting in the current, crappy mood being applied to every imagined future. (Emotions: Everything is shit. Imagination: We’re going to the movies?)

          TMS may work as well as it does because one of the things it does is increase neuroplasticity, allowing the brain to correctly order the firing of our emotional response to imagined futures.

          Anyway - TMS is right at the edges of our understanding of treating depression, but it really does work for a supermajority of patients.

          For me, I went from having literally lost all emotions and being essentially dead (and being willing to die), to feeling… normal. I haven’t had a major depressive episode in the two years since. It’s been liberating.

  • @RBWells@lemmy.world
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    271 year ago

    Don’t believe in, or can’t understand?

    I don’t believe we understand the fundamental nature of time, or the universe - we are limited by our bodies, can’t perceive or even think about everything that probably exists. But I don’t distrust the math or research that scientists are doing. In terms of how it is presented to us laypeople I think profit has poisoned the message, it is impossible to be current and knowledgeable in the way you’d need to be to pull apart all that messaging.

    If you mean what do you understand but still not believe? I am still not convinced radio is not magic. I understand how it works but what the heck? Magic.

  • @hawgietonight@lemmy.world
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    81 year ago

    Quantum entanglement. Having two particles latched in the same state even if separated by light years distance is something I currently cannot believe. Maybe too dumb, but my belief is that it ‘has’ to be some experiment error.

  • The singularity that supposedly lies inside black holes is more likely just a result of a huge gap in our understanding and a dead end in general relativity.

  • @tal@lemmy.today
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    31 year ago

    I mean, define “scientific”. A currently-held, consensus theory? Because it’s easy to find theories that were developed in accordance with scientific theory, held for a while, but discarded.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aether_theories

    In physics, aether theories (also known as ether theories) propose the existence of a medium, a space-filling substance or field as a transmission medium for the propagation of electromagnetic or gravitational forces. “Since the development of special relativity, theories using a substantial aether fell out of use in modern physics, and are now replaced by more abstract models.”

  • Call me Lenny/Leni
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    -481 year ago

    I’m infamous on Reddit as “that moon landing denier gal”. Sorry but I just don’t buy it. No goalpost was safe that decade and you don’t need the analytical videos to tell you that.

    • @gamermanh@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      131 year ago

      Bullshit you actually believe somethig that can be disproven by buying a $60 kids toy and looking up at the moon through it

      Or at least, you only believe it at this point because changing your view would rock your tiny world too much

      • Call me Lenny/Leni
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        -151 year ago

        So much for honestly answering the question OP had. What did people expect, the status quo?

        • Kalash
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          141 year ago

          Posting a decades long debunked conspiracy theory just isn’t a very interesting response.

          • Call me Lenny/Leni
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            -61 year ago

            OP didn’t ask for interesting responses, OP asked for honest responses. Should I have been dishonest?

            • Kalash
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              71 year ago

              No, you’re reply is perfectly fine. It’s just boring, so it will get downvoted.

                • Kalash
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                  51 year ago

                  I think it’s working pretty well.

                  But if you don’t like it there are frontend that hide/disable votes for you.

    • @bitwaba@lemmy.world
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      71 year ago

      What do you think about the event when about Buzz Aldrin punched a moonlanding denier in the face after they called him a coward, liar, and a thief?

      Genuinely curious. I know I can’t know for certain - I cant go back in time and ride on that rocket with them. But the guy that supposedly went there seems pretty convinced he did. Even if I did believe it was faked, I’d have a hard time believing he didn’t think he went.

      • Call me Lenny/Leni
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        -71 year ago

        There wouldn’t be any other way I could think of it aside from it being nothing short of escalation. Aldrin’s defenders would later claim the accuser “cornered him”, but this is certainly neither true nor would make sense in the context. Sometimes the narrative is going to do what a narrative does, though I (unlike some here) do not judge others for having different conclusions than me.

      • Call me Lenny/Leni
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        -51 year ago

        You’re welcome. Seeing the reaction, I’m wondering if people read the title of the OP and were expecting popular opinions. Lemmy is more Reddit than Lemmy probably wants to admit.

        • Nonagon ∞ Orc
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          161 year ago

          Well there is not much meaningful discussion to be had about a decades old conspiracy theory that has been memed on plenty in the past. I think that is where the downvotes are coming from.

          • Call me Lenny/Leni
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            -71 year ago

            If that’s the standard, there aren’t really a lot of meaningful discussions anywhere on this thread to be honest. Any documentaries on mothers co-sleeping with infants, humans fighting bears, or one for each of the three people denying the big bang theory?

            • @TrickDacy@lemmy.world
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              61 year ago

              All of those are more interesting topics than a dumb mega-debunked conspiracy theory. Seems like your standard for interesting is History channel at 2 am?

              • Call me Lenny/Leni
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                -71 year ago

                You say that like the opposing standard for interesting ever had a timeslot on any channel. I wouldn’t hold this against anyone though, I for one am not one to be as judgy or to come to a question like this expecting narrative conformity.

                • @TrickDacy@lemmy.world
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                  71 year ago

                  This is all performative. You knew you’d draw ire and that was your goal. Otherwise you probably wouldn’t have announced you’re reddit famous for believing a slew of debunked lies

    • TwinTusks
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      291 year ago

      My main come back for this: It was the height of the Cold War and the Soviets didnt question it. Also, recently, the Chinese moon missions has photographs of modules left by the Apollo missions on the moon.

      • Call me Lenny/Leni
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        -191 year ago

        To be fair, the Soviets also thought the space race to be all done with once they put their astronauts in orbit, and they weren’t really paying attention when America went to the moon.

          • Call me Lenny/Leni
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            -91 year ago

            At the time anyways. Especially the population at large wasn’t interested. It strikes me as weird to say you’re not interested in proving superiority in a certain field when you are when the whole point of making a statement is to be declarative about it.

          • Call me Lenny/Leni
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            -71 year ago

            If making a statement, why be quiet about it? That ruins the whole point of making a statement like how better someone is at something, doesn’t it? The civilian population in particular didn’t really care.

            • I don’t understand what you are saying. They had a moon landing program.

              Also, do you really think that if the Soviets had the opportunity to embarrass the Americans by proving the landing was fake, they wouldn’t take it? Of course they would. Instead they were able to track the Apollo mission all the way and knew it was real.

              • Call me Lenny/Leni
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                -71 year ago

                But they also said they weren’t interested in the space race. Note that you can be interested in an endeavor other people are interested with without wanting to engage in a “race” with them. In this case they are claimed as being interested in showing off while simultaneously being insecure about said thing. I would be puzzled if someone’s method of showing off was precisely that, to not show off.

                You say the rest like they did see it that way, that we absolutely went to the moon. How do you think censorship works? There is plenty of documentation about the case against the moon landing. Despite looking like plot armor though, the power of our culture has promoted the counters to it over it though.

                • Even if the Soviets had given up on the space race, they still had a vested interest in embarrassing America. They had every motivation to prove that America faked it, but they didn’t do it, because they had all the evidence that it was real. They could track the space craft and listen in on the same signals everyone else did.

                  All documentation against the moon landing has been thoroughly debunked many times. But you don’t care about that.

                  You don’t have to trust the Americans, there is plenty of independent third party evidence from multiple sources

                  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third-party_evidence_for_Apollo_Moon_landings

  • @Sterile_Technique@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I saw a study that concluded toilet seats in public restrooms were actually one of the cleanest surfaces in the restroom. Don’t dispute that - it just means that the entire area lands somewhere in the spectrum between disgusting and eldritch nightmare. Due to the finding that the toilet seats were cleaner than most other surfaces in the restroom, it further concluded that it was perfectly safe to just plop down bare-assed onto that nastiness.

    Abso-fucking-lutely not. The toilet paper bird-nest is a must. A few layers of splash protection toilet paper in the water before I even sit down is a must. ‘Ick’ factor aside, there are enough contact acquired pathogens to justify extreme caution in environments like that. I ain’t risking ass warts over some hypothesis, study, full-blown peer reviewed theory, or anything in between.

    • @DrRatso@lemmy.ml
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      21 year ago

      Look, as long as you don’t hover-squat or use other techniqies that make it more dirty, you can autoclave the toilet before using it for all I care, so long as that means you actually sit down. I hate seeing poop stains on the rim. That said I will usually sit down without a buffer.

    • There is something to be said for using squat toilets instead of sitting toilets in public bathrooms, so long as there are properly cleaned sitting toilets for the elderly and disabled (I have seen some shocking disabled public bathrooms over the years)

    • glomag
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      61 year ago

      It’s probably bad form to bring this type of comment over from reddit but in this case I can’t help myself.

      Username checks out.

    • @lunarul@lemmy.world
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      111 year ago

      Not just compared to the other surfaces in a restroom. I believe keyboards and phones both lost to toilet seats in that comparison too.

    • @Skyhighatrist@lemmy.ca
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      211 year ago

      There’s absolutely nothing scientific about Homeopathy, despite what its practitioners would have you believe.

        • @Jarix@lemmy.world
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          121 year ago

          “By definition”, I begin “Alternative Medicine”, I continue “Has either not been proved to work, Or been proved not to work. You know what they call “alternative medicine” That’s been proved to work? Medicine.”

          — Tim Minchin, Storm

        • @Skyhighatrist@lemmy.ca
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          41 year ago

          Right, but that can never be true for Homeopathy. It’s pseudoscience bullshit through and through. That said, many people conflate homeopathy with “natural remedies”, but that’s not what homeopathy is.

          Homeopathy is built on the concept of “like cures like” and that as a solution becomes more dilute it becomes stronger. A newer idea (at least compared to homeopathy’s history) is that water has memory and that it “remembers” whatever it was mixed with in the past. They added this on to explain why diluting a solution so much that there’s virtually no chance of there being even a single molecule of the “medicine” left in it doesn’t actually make it not work because water remembers what you mixed it with.

          So, say a person is suffering from poisoning. A typical homeopathic “cure” would be to take an amount of the poison, mix it with water, shake and stir it in a specific way, then dilute it with more water. Repeat lots of times, since the more dilute it is the stronger the “medicine” is.

          Practitioners prey on the ignorance of their customers to swindle them out of their money for something that amounts to nothing more than a placebo. And while it’s possible that the placebo effect can have some beneficial effect, that doesn’t justify the existence of homeopathy.

          God I hate this pseudoscience bullshit.

  • @AnalogyAddict@lemmy.world
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    291 year ago

    I’m probably going to get eviscerated for this, but that sexuality is purely genetic. I think that for the vast majority of people, sexuality is way more fluid than not, and much more influenced by environment than people would like to think.

    I also don’t think that has any bearing on people’s right to choose.

    • admiralteal
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      231 year ago

      All of physics is a “math model”. One we attempt to falsify. And when a scientist does prove some part of the model wrong, the community leaps up in celebration and gets to working on the fix or the next.

      Dark matter started as exactly a catchall designed to make the model work properly. We started with a very good model, but when observing extreme phenomenon (in this case the orbits of stars of entire galaxies), the model didn’t fit. So either there was something we couldn’t see to explain the difference (“dark” matter), or else the model was wrong and needed modification.

      There’s also multiple competing theories for what that dark matter is, exactly. Everything from countless tiny primordial black holes to bizarre, lightyear-sized standing waves in a quantum field. But the best-fitting theories that make the most sense and contradict the fewest observations & models seem to prefer there be some kind of actual particle that interacts just fine with gravity, but very poorly or not at all with electromagnetism. And since we rely on electromagnetism for nearly all of our particle physics experiments that makes whatever this particle is VERY elusive.

      Worth observing that once, a huge amount of energy produced by stars was an example of a dark energy. Until we figured out how to detect neutrinos. Then it wasn’t dark anymore.

      In short, you’re exactly right. It’s a catch-all to make the math model work properly. And that’s not actually a problem.

        • @theherk@lemmy.world
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          41 year ago

          Well that’s a fun hypothesis that should be falsifiable. Why not write a paper with some maths predictions? That is a pretty extraordinary claim, but definitely fascinating.

          • @KISSmyOS@lemmy.world
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            101 year ago

            I just read up on it a bit, and there’s multiple things disproving my theory:

            • to reconcile our models with our observations, dark matter would have to be primordial, i.e. created shortly after the big bang.
            • to explain the movements we see, dark matter must be mostly concentrated in a ring far outside of a galaxy. Dyson spheres would probably be concentrated in clusters spreading from the center of a civilization.
            • Dyson spheres would radiate heat we can detect with infrared telescopes, unless you hand-wave it with “aliens found tech that breaks thermodynamics” and at that point it’s the same as saying it’s magic.
    • @DogWater@lemmy.world
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      11 year ago

      I’m with you here, I don’t understand dark matter and dark energy and the expansion of the universe. We see shit moving all the time in the universe. I’m still not convinced we just don’t understand the motion of the universe outside our envelope of observation and it’s explainable with conventional matter and energy. Im trying to learn a lot tho. I’m gonna watch that video someone posted to you.

    • @towerful@programming.dev
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      Yeh, that’s how the scientific method works.
      Observations don’t support a model, or a model doesn’t support observations.
      Think of a reason why.
      Test that hypothesis.
      Repeat until you think it’s correct. Hopefully other people agree with you.

      People are also working on modifying General Relativity and Newtonian Dynamics to try and fix the model, while other people are working on observing dark matter directly (instead of it’s effects) to further prove the existing models.
      https://youtu.be/3o8kaCUm2V8

      We are in the “testing hypothesis” stage. And have been for 50ish years

        • @HeChomk@lemmy.world
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          121 year ago

          The certainty is that there is something there, we just don’t know what it is. The name “dark” anything is irrelevant.

            • @HeChomk@lemmy.world
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              131 year ago

              “just that there are forces and motions that are not understood.” - aka, there’s “something” there… Doesn’t have to be a physical something. You’re intentionally misunderstanding or misinterpreting just to try and win points on the Internet.

              • @towerful@programming.dev
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                21 year ago

                I mean, they are working on adjusting Newtonian dynamics for the situations where gravity between objects is low. This would fix the model for the strange galaxy spin and where 2 stars orbit eachother.
                The issue with this is there are too many unknowns as we have a (relatively) fixed point of perspective. But statistical analysis is working on reducing the impact of those unknowns, and there is likely a paper published in the next few months regarding this.

                Then, I guess it’s a matter of understanding why this applies. And maybe it applies because of dark matter, and it all wraps back round to an undiscovered thing.
                Or, perhaps Newtonian dynamics isn’t complete but has been accurate enough to withstand all our testing (like taking 9.8 as the value of G on earth, even though it varies across the globe, and the moon/sun/planets also have a miniscule impact. For everything we do on earth, 9.8 is accurate enough)

                Dark matter still has strong scientific support, although still undiscovered.
                Modifying Newtonian dynamics has so far been disproven.
                Both are worthy of pursuing

      • @Jeredin@lemm.ee
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        31 year ago

        “Repeat until you think it’s correct. Hopefully other people agree with you.”

        Dark Energy has entered the chat.

        For those with time to spare: study all you can about neutron stars (including magnetars and quark stars), then go back to “black holes” (especially their event horizons and beyond) and there’s a good chance you’ll feel like a lot of aspects in BH theories are mythologies written in math - all of it entertaining, nonetheless.

        For those who seek extra credit, study zero-point energy before reflecting on cosmic voids, galaxy filaments, galaxies, gravitationally bound celestial systems, quantum chromodynamics and neutrinos. Then, ponder the relativity between neutron stars, zero-point energy and hadron quark sea.

      • @Fermion@feddit.nl
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        11 year ago

        The attempts to measure dark matter directly have gotten incredibly sensitive and still haven’t found anything.

          • @Fermion@feddit.nl
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            21 year ago

            Multiple experiments to detect dark matter directly here on earth have been constructed. They expected a handful of detections a year given the estimates of local dark matter densities. Those experiments have not yielded any detections. This sets very restrictive limits on candidates for particle like dark matter.

            I’m fully aware of astronomical observations that suggest the need for dark matter. That’s not what I was referring to.

            So far, astronomical observations are all we have, the lack of terrestrial observations have only been able to elliminate candidate particles, not measure them.

    • @PixelAlchemist@lemmy.world
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      671 year ago

      You’re not wrong. According to the current scientific understanding of the universe, that’s exactly what it is. They just gave it a badass name.

    • LanternEverywhere
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      21 year ago

      Great example, and this brings up a great point about this topic - there’s a difference between what’s a scientific pursuit vs. what is current established scientific understanding.

      Dark matter is a topic being studied to try to find evidence of it existing, but as of now there’s is zero physical evidence that it actually exists.

    • @neidu2@feddit.nl
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      21 year ago

      I am curious if the opposite of dark matter could be true; while dark matter inside galaxies would explain galactical motion, couldn’t the same be explained by something repulsive BETWEEN galaxies? If the latter were the case, it would also explain dark energy.

      • admiralteal
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        51 year ago

        The observations of systems like the Bullet Cluster imply that dark matter is actual material – baryonic matter. Stuff that exists in specific locations and has mass. Modifying the math of the physical laws does not explain these observations without absolutely going into contortions where dark matter explains them quite elegantly.

          • @bitwaba@lemmy.world
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            That sounds like it’s trying to take large scale phenomena and make them work on the quantum scale. What if the solution is the other way around: make modified quantum mechanics work on the large scale? (I guess those are effectively the same thing. You’d need a quantum gravity theory one way or another. Sorry, layman here. Just spitballin’ ideas)

      • @Treczoks@lemmy.world
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        -11 year ago

        The experimental observation did not reveal Dark Matter. Nobody has seen or proven Dark Matter, actually. That’s why it is called Dark Matter. The observation just showed that the math model was flawed, and they invented “Dark Matter” to make up for it.

        My personal take is that they will one day add the right correction factor that should have been in the fomulas all the time.

        Just like with E=mc² not being completely correct. It’s actually E²=m²c⁴ + p²c². The p²c² is not adding much, but it is still there.

          • @Treczoks@lemmy.world
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            -61 year ago

            I know that it is not a simple scale thing here. So it might be something else. My bet is that is has something to do with angular momentum,

              • @Treczoks@lemmy.world
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                -21 year ago

                I’m no astrophysicist - I just design computer chips. But this issue of “We need dark matter” came up with rotating galaxies, didn’t it? So I’d look into that direction if there is a potential connection. Classic bug hunting technique.

                • admiralteal
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                  The Bullet Cluster, among several other systems, are very strong evidence that dark matter is actual baryonic matter that does not experience significant (or any) electromagnetic interactions. What we see when we look at these kinds of systems is that there is all evidence of STUFF there, but we cannot see the stuff. It’s not an indication of a poorly-performing math model missing a function term.

                  It would be like if we saw ripples in the water like we know exist around a rock. But we don’t see a rock. Sure, MAYBE we just fundamentally need to rewrite our basic rules of fluid mechanics to be able to create these exact ripples. But the more probable explanation is that there’s a rock we can’t see, and falsifying that theory will require just HEAPS of evidence.

                  The evidence we have suggests overwhelmingly that there is actual stuff that has mass that we simply do not have the tools to observe. Which isn’t all that surprising given that we are only JUST starting to build instruments to observe cosmological phenomena using stuff other than photons of light.

    • @Ranvier@sopuli.xyz
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      11 year ago

      Interesting tidbit for you. You’d think if it was a math model not working properly that could be explained away with adjustments to the model that we’d be wrong looking at all galaxies. And yet there are galaxies out there that appear to be missing dark matter!

      https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/mystery-of-galaxys-missing-dark-matter-deepens

      https://www.space.com/galaxy-no-dark-matter-cosmic-puzzle

      It doesn’t solve the problem but, it adds to the intrigue I think.

      • admiralteal
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        1 year ago

        Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND). It’s been the dissenting voice in the modern Great Debate about dark matter.

        On one side are the dark matter scientists who think there’s a vast category of phenomenon out there FAR beyond our current science. That the universe is far larger and more complex than we currently know, and so we must dedicate ourselves to exploring the unexplored. The other side, the

        On the other you have the MOND scientists, who hope they can prevent that horizon from flying away from them by tweaking the math on some physical laws. It basically adds a term to our old physics equations to explain why low acceleration systems experience significantly different forces than the high-acceleration systems with which we are more familiar – though their explanations for WHY the math ought be tweaked I always found totally unsatisfactory – to make the current, easy-to-grock laws fit the observations.

        With the big problem being that it doesn’t work. It explains some galactic motion, but not all. It sometimes fits wide binary star systems kind of OK, but more often doesn’t. It completely fails to explain the lensing and motion of huge galactic clusters. At this point, MOND has basically been falsified. Repeatedly, predictions it made have failed.

        Dark matter theories – that is, the theories that say there are who new categories of stuff out there we don’t understand at all – still are the best explanation. That means we’re closer to the starting line of understanding the cosmos instead of the finish line many wanted us to be nearing. But I think there’s a razor in there somewhere, about trusting the scientist who understands the limits of our knowledge over the one who seems confident we nearly know everything.

      • Chetzemoka
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        51 year ago

        There’s no scandal. Some people who are leading proponents of MOND theory recently published a new paper using what might be the best scenario we currently have to detect MOND (wide binary stars), and their more precise calculations…are not consistent with MOND. They published evidence against the very theory they were betting on.

        https://youtu.be/HlNSvrYygRc?si=otqhH6VINIsCMfiS