Although I mostly post about fantasy and science fiction, I am also very interested in science and watch quite a few science documentaries, especially about the universe, the solar system, and the formation of the Earth and planets. I just finished streaming How the Universe Works and watching Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey. I really enjoyed the first of these. I have a few problems with the second, as many people seem to, including Tim Shuttle, in a blog I just read. Interestingly, some of Mr. Shuttle’s complaints attribute Mr. Tyson with just the opposite of what Dr. Tyson said in The Inexplicable Universe.
The first episode of The Inexplicable Universe was entitled “History’s Mysteries”. It was about how theories of the universe have been made in the past weren’t quite right, and were overturned in the future by something better.
One example was Ptolemy’s model of the solar system. It was complicated. It had to be to explain the movements of the planets if the Earth was the center of the solar system. Tyson implied that Ptolemy might have known something wasn’t quite right. And of course, it wasn’t. Copernicus came around centuries later with the heliocentric model and after that, the movements of the planets made a lot more sense.
Another example was Newton using his theory of gravity to explain how the solar system worked. His theory worked well when only two objects were used in the formula, but not when including the sun and all the known planets. Newton explained this through divine intervention. Later, Einstein solved the problem using his Theory of Relativity.
Though not discussed in Tyson’s program, the atom was only a theory at one time as well, a place holder in a way. Now we have seen the atom and know all its component parts. (At least, we think we do.)
That got me to thinking about dark matter and dark energy. Dark matter was proposed as a way to explain the gravity in galaxies and galaxy clusters, since our knowledge of the known mass of the stars and the theory of gravity fall short. Likewise, dark energy is used to explain the expansion of the universe, while everything else tells us the expansion should be slowing down and reversing itself. The concept of dark matter and dark energy are used to explain something we don’t yet understand about how the universe works. Scientists are saying that dark matter may make up most of the universe, and we don’t even know what it is.
Tyson’s views expressed in “History’s Mysteries” is that this sort of thing happens throughout history. They may not find out what dark matter is in my lifetime, or they may come up with something entirely new to explain their observations. This is one of those things we just don’t know yet.
I would like to think that all the questions will be solved within my lifetime, but I know that that won’t happen. There will always be new things to learn. Human were gifted with a curiosity and a mind that could figure things out. That is the basis of science. I think if there was nothing new to learn, we would cease to exist as a species. Still, I want to know everything.
I guess that’s why I read science fiction.