Astrophysicists may be tiring of searching for things they know nothing about. The consequences could be revolutionary.

The non-detection of dark matter and confusion about dark energy are taking their toll. Astrophysicists may have to bite the bullet and say that these mysterious entities don’t exist.

Dark Energy Gets Weirder: Mysterious Force May Vary Over Time (Live Science). Dark energy is not dark matter, and vice versa; the two are related by the word “dark” and the fact that astrophysicists know nothing about either of them. The headline reminds one of saying, “ghosts are so weird, they might change shape over time.” Even so, is the theory of dark energy really helping?

“Some scientists suggested that new physics might be needed to explain this discrepancy, including the possibility that dark energy is growing in strength,” Risaliti said. “Our new results agree with this suggestion.“

International team of physicists continues search for new physics (Purdue University). Here’s another article that dabbles with “new physics” to explain our universes. The operative word in the following quote is “could” as if in the proverb, “If pigs had wings, they could fly.”

“Some believe there’s a mediator that talks to dark matter particles. If that’s the case, and it couples to the Higgs, we might be able to see it in top quark physics,” he said. “We’ve only looked at a fraction of the data we’ve collected so far. There could still be something there.”

Finding dark matter in the dark (University of Melbourne). Another team is going to spend lots of money and effort to look for dark matter impinging on fluid deep in a mine. All previous searches have failed. Is it the hope of a Nobel Prize that spurs the hunters? This is more an adventure story than a science article. Watch that “could” word again.

Dark matter is the mysterious material that holds the Universe together, yet no one has seen it; or heard, smelled, tasted or touched it either. But that may soon change, and a laboratory 1000 metres below the ground in the Stawell gold mine halfway between Melbourne and Adelaide could be the epicentre of this discovery.

Dark matter may not actually exist – and our alternative theory can be put to the test. (The Conversation). Juri Smirnov is betting on MOND (Modified Newtonian Dynamics), not dark matter, to explain the observations. Unfortunately, MOND theory is beset with problems of its own. As a result, Smirnov and colleagues have a modified MOND theory (modified-modified-Newtonian-dynamics) they want to test.

We are watching a possible scientific revolution in the making. They will either eventually find these dark things within standard theory, or have to leave behind the standard view of one of the “hard sciences” (physics) at least at cosmic scales. The lesson is that scientific theories are always tentative. They can explain a lot, till anomalies crop up. Persistent anomalies can lead to revolutionary new ideas. What scientists think they know now, therefore, is always up for revision.

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