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Old Apr 14, 2008, 11:41 pm   #55 (permalink) (top)
Jack
formerly Isherwood
 
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Location: San Diego, CA
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Quote:
Dark matter is nothing by itself, its a patch that was added to a theory to make it work.
Nearly right, as I understand it, but you make it sound as though there was a theory to be proven and evidence was being manufactured to support it. That's not true. Science works from evidence to hypothesis. In some cases, the hypothesis can't account for every aspect of the evidence. In those cases, an explanation is inferred which might explain the rest of the evidence. What's inferred is always viewed with skepticism until more evidence is accumulated to strengthen the inference. Dark matter is inferred by other observations. It may or may not be acceptable as a part of cosmology once more evidence is obtained and examined.


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