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Hubble Space Telescope Detects Ring of Dark Matter
mknewman wrote with a link to a story on the NASA site indicating that they may have finally found dark matter using the Hubble telescope. We've discussed the stuff a few times in the last year, with the Hubble actually mapping out the dark matter in the universe in January. This, though, may be our first 'sighting' of the elusive substance. "NASA will hold a media teleconference at 1 p.m. EDT on May 15 to discuss the strongest evidence to date that dark matter exists. This evidence was found in a ghostly ring of dark matter in the cluster CL0024+17, discovered using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The ring is the first detection of dark matter with a unique structure different from the distribution of both the galaxies and the hot gas in the cluster. The discovery will be featured in the June 20 issue of the Astrophysical Journal."
I'd say it's probably due to specialization. In the past you had "men of science". Take Ben Franklin for example; a man who discovered electricity and had multiple inventions. In modern times a Geek who is at the cutteng edge of any science probably isn't disciplined in more than a few areas at most, and more than likely is focused on the one area specifically. Standing on the shoulders of giants and having many many people extremely focused on one area, it seems more natural that science advances a bit faster.