New Gravity Theory Dispenses with Dark Matter

Darkness Matters writes "According to New Scientist, a theory of modified gravity, which has no need of dark matter, has just explained why the Pioneer 10 probe is 400,000 miles off its expected course as it leaves the solar system. It sounds pretty convincing, although in dispensing with dark matter, they've had to utilize the theoretical particle, called a graviton, which appears from the vacuum of space wherever stars are densely packed, making gravity stronger."

Comments

Not a troll, maybe a little OT though..

[Anonymous Coward]

Brian Peppers tried to rape me. Competition for the First Post!

Re:Not a troll, maybe a little OT though..

[RingDev]

"Brian Peppers tried to rape me."

That's just disturbing.

-Rick

when will it stop

[Anonymous Coward]

when will slashdot stop posting articles from the pseudo science rag New Scientist.
it is one of the worst publications out there. they never really have any true science just some crazy speculation most of the time.
does anyone else feel the same way or am i the only one?

Re:when will it stop

[Anonymous Coward]

I quit reading SA a while ago as well. Once upon a time I used to have a subscription (it used to be good).

Have you read their editorials after they changed their format? I don't remember but I think they got a new main editor as well. When the editors don't have the smarts to keep their personal political opinions out of a science magazine it becomes hard to trust their integrity towards the aim of the magazine: science publishing.

Popular rants on whatever is the hot political issue can be got for free from any dofus (me included) and both the internet and mainstream media is overflowing with it. I will not buy or read a magazine which instead of science focuses on the average media flamefest. It doesn't matter what opinion they hold but I'm not interested enough in whining about americas educational system, the perceived lack of science funding, the perceived scorn for other points of view on ethical issues, and absolutism concerning global warming --all those things that "belong" in the pathetic mainstream media flamefest-- some of us actually know science and what it isn't.

The above points are the editorial content I remember off the top of my head. There isn't neccessarily anything wrong with the articles themselves but I do have a feeling that this noise has crawled into some of them and they definetly have become more shallow over the years.

Simply put SA (as well as NS) has a too high noise to signal ratio to be worth money. Luckily there are tons of other journals that are much better and much more interesting.

If you enjoy reading SA & NS then continue doing so all you wish, but if you are as uncritical to what you read as your post implies it probably wont do you much good, at least not concerning science. Why? Because science isn't absolutist, it isn't 'final truth', it isn't all figured out, and one of the principles of science is to keep an open mind about this.

In direct reply to your post that means that petrolium formation can be abiogenic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abiogenic_petroleum_ origin), biogenic, both, or something inbetween, or including unknown processes. Now that aside if you were smart you would realize that none of those processes are fast and that for any practical discussion on peak oil they're all more or less irrelevant. On the other hand if you're stupid or clouded by your own political opinions you would selfrighteously proclaim either one or the other as an absolute fact...

Btw I've stopped reading the Economist too as there's way too much opinionated crap these days. Now I don't mind opinons and a magazine like the Economist should have plenty of them but I expect to see those opions carefully, logically, and rationally explained and debated - I expect analysis - otherwise it's valueless or at least not worth my money.

Re:at first I saw...

[13bPower]

(-1, wrong)

Re:My invisible friend

[TWX]

Yeah, well, people hate it when you make them feel stupid either way, so it really doesn't matter, child vs. scientist. They don't want to hear it.

Re:Vast improvement

[iphayd]

Those must have been reindeer, we all know unicorns can't fly.

There is no gravity

[Anonymous Coward]

The Earth sucks.

Re:Nearly right...

[Anonymous Coward]

Guys, guys, guys. Come on. We all know it's the Flying Spaghetti Monster that's responsible for holding the universe together, right? Isn't that what scientists criticizing the notion that the universe emerged from nothing and that all life developed by accidental "evolution" are saying? I think we should stick with established doctrine masquerading as "fact" rather than to actually try to think of other explanations.

Oh, my head. It hurts so bad....

MOD PARENT UP

[Duckspeak]

I'm glad that somebody remembers how to kill Zeromus these days...

Re:MOD PARENT UP

[voice_of_all_reason]

Actually, Edge's steal rate on such a high-level monster is so ridiculously low that's usually quicker to just let Rydia and Edge stay dead. The plus side is that Curaja will now fully-heal the remaining three members of your party in one go.

Re:mirror anyone?

[RingDev]

Okay, if it's the first post asking for a mirror, it is not redundant. Any posts following asking for a mirror are redundant.

Make point 'A' Insightfull

Repeat point 'A' Redundant

-Rick