It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
Originally posted by Arbitrageur
reply to post by MamaJ
Hermeticism is off topic in the science and technology forum, unless you want to start a thread showing the scientific evidence for the magical and religious beliefs:
It's probably not even on topic in a separate thread since by definition it's not scientific, but it's definitely off topic in this thread which is about "Dark Energy".
This article is about the magical and religious movement stemming from the teachings attributed to Hermes Trismegistus.
This doesn't mean it's not interesting, as I studied hermeticism for a while. But unless you can point to some scientific evidence connecting it to the dark energy evidence scientists have presented, you haven't demonstrated it's on topic. And since I've studied it myself, I'm pretty sure there isn't any science behind it.
Hermeticism is a historiographical phrase describing the work that attempts to reconstruct the mode of thought held by 17th century scientists. It primarily traces out the connections of Renaissance (16th century) modes of thought with those of the Scientific Revolution (17th century). This type of analysis began with English historians of science in the 1960s. This category of history of science work has largely subsumed earlier academic philosophers' work on the problem of transition from Aristotelianism to 17th century science. [1] [edit]
Originally posted by Arbitrageur
reply to post by MamaJ
This thread isn't about the history of science either, so that's off topic too. However, the part of philosophy which led to modern science that's evidence based branched off from other parts of philosophy. So just showing that philosophical topics were linked in the past is not demonstrating that non-scientific topics today have scientific evidence. This is quite distorted logic.
If you think that just because dark energy is a mystery, we should open up the discussion to anything even if it's not scientific, that would include things like flying spaghetti monsters, so again this is another failure in logic.
We have evidence for dark matter, even if we don't know what it is.
Since this is the science forum, let's stick to things which are based in evidence. Hermetics is not evidence based, unless you want to show some evidence about how it relates to dark matter?
Dark energy, the mysterious substance thought to be accelerating the expansion of the universe, almost certainly exists despite some astronomers' doubts, a new study says.
Re-examining the data In the new study, the researchers re-examine the arguments against the Integrated Sachs Wolfe detection, and they update the maps used in the original work. In the end, the team determined that there is a 99.996 percent chance that dark energy is responsible for the hotter parts of the CMB maps, researchers said. "This work also tells us about possible modifications to Einstein’s theory of general relativity," said lead author Tommaso Giannantonio, of Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich in Germany. "The next generation of cosmic microwave background and galaxy surveys should provide the definitive measurement, either confirming general relativity, including dark energy, or even more intriguingly, demanding a completely new understanding of how gravity works," Giannantonio added.
The problem of the dark energy is also central to today’s physics. Our best attempts at a fundamental theory suggest the presence of a cosmological constant that is many (perhaps as many as 120) orders of magnitude greater than the upper bound set by astronomical observations. For decades the problem seemed to be to find a symmetry or cancellation mechanism of some sort that would make the cosmological constant precisely zero. The single greatest failure of our most promising theories (such as string theories) is that they do not satisfy this requirement. Now that a dark energy has apparently been found, the problem is even harder: not just to explain why the dark energy is so tiny compared with what would have been expected theoretically, but also to explain why it happens to be of the same order of magnitude (roughly twice) as the energy in matter at the present moment in the history of the universe. It is difficult for physicists to attack this problem without knowing just what it is that needs to be explained – a cosmological constant or a dark energy that changes with time as the universe evolves – and for this they must rely on new observations by astronomers. Until it is solved, the problem of the dark energy will be a roadblock on our path to a comprehensive fundamental physical theory.
In the coming years and decades, astronomers will study exploding stars, map millions of galaxies, and plot the gravitational influence of dense galaxy clusters. Particle physicists will probe conditions near the time of the Big Bang. And all of them will tweak their models of how the universe began, how it has aged, and how it will end. Their work will help us understand the vast cosmic "ocean" of dark energy — an ocean that we are just beginning to explore.
What's the source for that?
Originally posted by MamaJ
Just as our brain has dark energy
This really is one of the most startling discoveries in science. (and yes I meant dark energy, not dark matter, thanks).
(May 19, 2011) — A five-year survey of 200,000 galaxies, stretching back seven billion years in cosmic time, has led to one of the best independent confirmations that dark energy is driving our universe apart at accelerating speeds....
"Observations by astronomers over the last 15 years have produced one of the most startling discoveries in physical science; the expansion of the universe, triggered by the big bang, is speeding up," said Jon Morse, astrophysics division director at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "Using entirely independent methods, data from the Galaxy Evolution Explorer have helped increase our confidence in the existence of dark energy."
Originally posted by MamaJ
Is it really that mysterious? Not to all of us... Just some.
I've heard a number of scientists discuss the cosmological constant possibility, but I haven't really heard anybody talk about quintessence.
The nature of this dark energy is a matter of speculation. The evidence for dark energy is only indirect coming from distance measurements and their relation to redshift.[19] It is thought to be very homogeneous, not very dense and is not known to interact through any of the fundamental forces other than gravity. Since it is quite rarefied—roughly 10^−29 grams per cubic centimeter—it is unlikely to be detectable in laboratory experiments. Dark energy can only have such a profound effect on the universe, making up 74% of universal density, because it uniformly fills otherwise empty space. The two leading models are a cosmological constant and quintessence. Both models include the common characteristic that dark energy must have negative pressure.
Originally posted by Arbitrageur
What's the source for that?
Originally posted by MamaJ
Just as our brain has dark energy
Dark energy as we understand it is too small to measure on the scale of a human brain. It's only over vast distances the size of the cosmos that we've been able to measure dark energy.
Here's another confirming study that wasn't mentioned in the OP source:
Dark Energy Is Driving Universe Apart: NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer Finds Dark Energy Repulsive
This really is one of the most startling discoveries in science. (and yes I meant dark energy, not dark matter, thanks).
(May 19, 2011) — A five-year survey of 200,000 galaxies, stretching back seven billion years in cosmic time, has led to one of the best independent confirmations that dark energy is driving our universe apart at accelerating speeds....
"Observations by astronomers over the last 15 years have produced one of the most startling discoveries in physical science; the expansion of the universe, triggered by the big bang, is speeding up," said Jon Morse, astrophysics division director at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "Using entirely independent methods, data from the Galaxy Evolution Explorer have helped increase our confidence in the existence of dark energy."
Originally posted by MamaJ
Is it really that mysterious? Not to all of us... Just some.
There are two ideas about what it is:
Dark Energy
I've heard a number of scientists discuss the cosmological constant possibility, but I haven't really heard anybody talk about quintessence.
The nature of this dark energy is a matter of speculation. The evidence for dark energy is only indirect coming from distance measurements and their relation to redshift.[19] It is thought to be very homogeneous, not very dense and is not known to interact through any of the fundamental forces other than gravity. Since it is quite rarefied—roughly 10^−29 grams per cubic centimeter—it is unlikely to be detectable in laboratory experiments. Dark energy can only have such a profound effect on the universe, making up 74% of universal density, because it uniformly fills otherwise empty space. The two leading models are a cosmological constant and quintessence. Both models include the common characteristic that dark energy must have negative pressure.
But until someone can provide evidence to show what it is (which should yield a Nobel prize), it's a fascinating mystery. I would ask you why you think it's not mysterious, but I'm afraid the answer won't be scientific, so I'll resist that urge.
I tried that and I got some articles that have nothing whatsoever to do with the topic of this thread.
Originally posted by MamaJ
Use google, you will find articles about dark energy in the brain.
Meaning I'm using the definition which applies today, and you're using the definition that applied several hundred years ago as in your history of science reference?
Originally posted by MamaJ
I'm leaving this thread to you as your definition of science and mine are different.