Tag: Astrophysics
-
Is cosmology completely broken?
Thirty years ago, when I was taught cosmology as an undergraduate, it felt pretty much like a subject that was close to being fully described: indeed this was the era when Stephen Hawking could announce that we were close to a “theory of everything”. In simplified form the cosmology was this: the universe (and there…
-
Is dark matter locked up in primordial black holes?
To be honest, I have an issue with both “dark matter” and “dark energy” – they both look like close-to-metaphysical constructs to me: we have a hole where theory and observation do not match so we’ll invent this latter-day phlogiston and call it “dark”. Then again, I’m not really qualified to comment and it is…
-
Copernicus was wrong (maybe)
No, I haven’t taken leave of my senses and decided the Sun moves around the Earth (but here is a pop quiz for all of you laughing at that idea – can you think of a simple experiment that would prove to a 10-year-old that the Earth moves around the Sun?). In fact the issue…
-
Reading something shocking
I wonder if there is any major part of physics that has changed so fundamentally in the last thirty years as cosmology. Back in 1987 cosmology was more or less the last module we were taught as part of the astrophysics degree. But what we were taught then seems like basic arithmetic compared to today’s…
-
Do universities fail science students?
There is a very interesting article on the THES website today – “So last century” – which says that universities are failing students because they teach them in such a compartmentalised way. Whether the study is conducted by the CBI in the UK or by commercial for-profit educational providers drumming up business for their remedial…
cartesian product ... stuff about computing mostly 