Scientists Expand Knowledge of Dark Matter

nife00 writes "BBC News is reporting that British scientists at Cambridge have expanded the current understanding of the mysterious particles known as dark matter." According to the article: "[The Cambridge Team] has at last been able to place limits on how it is packed in space and measure its "temperature". "It's the first clue of what this stuff might be," said Professor Gerry Gilmore. "For the first time ever, we're actually dealing with its physics," he told the BBC News website."

Comments

Lots of it, and really damned hot?

[interiot]

The article mentions that there's quite a bit more of it than normal matter, and that it's about 10,000 degrees (... C?). Is that consistent? It just sounds odd for dark matter to have such a higher energy level than normal matter, weakly interacting or not.

No references

[Random Walk]

I'll probably never understand why newspapers are never able to quote any references for their news. Even in the absence of a published refereed paper, I would expect that there is at least a preprint or press release from the research group... apparently BBC news is convinced that their readers will drop dead on the floor if they encounter a hyperlink leading to something more than just random blurb from a journalist.

Actually, they don't even say whether 'Professor Gerry Gilmore' is part of the group that did this research, or whether he is just someone they asked 'Hey guy, what do think about this stuff?'. I.e. they don't even identify clearly any member of this 'Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge, team'.

Re:Just another point of view

[TapeCutter]

"could it be the case that we might not even be able to understand and explain some phonemena simply because our brain power is not adequate."

Godel has already shown that no system of description is adequate, this is independant of of the amount of brain power on hand (or in head). People often wonder why maths is so good at describing the Universe, I belive it is because it is actually describing the model used by the brain to create the illusion of "I". ie: The simulated Universe containing the simulated self we all carry around in our heads. The "physical universe we live in" is an illusion.

A favourite quote from the above link: Although this theorem can be stated and proved in a rigorously mathematical way, what it seems to say is that rational thought can never penetrate to the final ultimate truth ... But, paradoxically, to understand Gödel's proof is to find a sort of liberation. For many logic students, the final breakthrough to full understanding of the Incompleteness Theorem is practically a conversion experience. This is partly a by-product of the potent mystique Gödel's name carries. But, more profoundly, to understand the essentially labyrinthine nature of the castle is, somehow, to be free of it.

I find the quote interesting because it relates a similar experience to religious conversion, ie: acceptance of the unknowable.