Dark matter = gravitino?

[bojan]

Interestinr reading..
see below:
http://www.apollon.uio.no/english/ar...rk_matter.html

The only problem here may be the (non)existence of Supersymmetry.

[Poita (Peter)]

I know everyone will laugh at me, but I reckon Dark Matter will eventually turn out to be like Phlogiston or Ether or Einstein's abandoned constant.
i.e. Something that is a placeholder to make the current theories work, but will be blown away when we finally understand some completely new thing that changes our whole understanding (again) of how the universe works.

*flame suit on*

[Steffen]

I agree, we seem to be very much in the same position as 19th century physicists with regard to a number of observable but unexplained phenomena. Eventually another curtain will be pulled away and a lot of what's perplexing right now will become clear.

Cheers
Steffen.

[Dave2042 (Dave)]

Originally Posted by Steffen

I agree, we seem to be very much in the same position as 19th century physicists with regard to a number of observable but unexplained phenomena. Eventually another curtain will be pulled away and a lot of what's perplexing right now will become clear.

Cheers
Steffen.

Hmmm.

Yes, we certainly seem to be stuck, and it seems likely that we are awaiting a big advance which could completely change the fundamentals of how we see the universe.

On the other hand, we do really know a hell of a lot more than we did back then. Not sure if this what you are saying, but I don't go for the line that each big advance demonstrates that everything we used to know was wrong and it's back to square one.

[Steffen]

No, that's not what I'm saying. Scientific progress occurs in cycles where periods of lots of small steps, detours, dead ends, and accumulation of data alternate with big breakthroughs that occur when the time is ripe for them.

A breakthrough (what I called a curtain pulled away) will not invalidate previous results but rather reaffirm them as special cases in a now much bigger scenario that wasn't seen before. And it will take care of some of the stuff that couldn't be explained before.

Cheers
Steffen.

[Dave2042 (Dave)]

Originally Posted by Steffen

No, that's not what I'm saying. Scientific progress occurs in cycles where periods of lots of small steps, detours, dead ends, and accumulation of data alternate with big breakthroughs that occur when the time is ripe for them.

A breakthrough (what I called a curtain pulled away) will not invalidate previous results but rather reaffirm them as special cases in a now much bigger scenario that wasn't seen before. And it will take care of some of the stuff that couldn't be explained before.

Cheers
Steffen.

Certainly agree with all that.