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Published online 13 August 2008 | Nature 454, 808-809 (2008) | doi:10.1038/454808b
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Physicists await dark-matter confirmation
PAMELA mission offers tantalizing hint of success.
Rumours are swirling that a European satellite mission may have detected dark matter, the mysterious particles thought to make up as much of 85% of all matter in the Universe.
Nature has learned that the PAMELA (Payload for Antimatter Matter Exploration and Light-nuclei Astrophysics) mission — a collaboration between Italy, Russia, Germany and Sweden — has detected a surplus of high-energy antielectrons whizzing through space.
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As reported above, dark matter annihalation or any other process producing an excess of positrons over electrons from electrically neutral precursors would violate conservation of charge and conservation of lepton generation number. Unlikely. Something is missing.
The annihilations would indeed produce equal numbers of electrons and positrons. But like all antimatter, positrons are very rare in the Universe. Any process creating more of them will raise the count of positrons above background levels. The effect will be virtually undetectable for the much more common electrons.
"Pink elephants" are even rarer than "positrons", yet pinkies are observed regularly and by more people than "positrons" are. Which brings me to another, equally revealing question: since when is the "most physicists believe" a valid measure warranting an article (and one based on a rumor, at that)? Most physicists before Tesla believed the alternate current should be outlawed because it can kill us, and yet I can type this great philosophy and you can read it -- thanks to Tesla, not most physicists. Most physicists before Einstein believed time has no definition ergo cannot change (stretch or contract), and yet most kids today believe it can... Oh wait, that’s a wrong example -- time still has no definition! Or has the "most kids believe" become an even more revealing measure yet...
Positrons are routinely produced in nature when energetic, proton-rich (i.e., neutron-poor) nuclei decay to more stable ones. It is therefore disingenuous to say that, “This is the type of signal that one would expect [from dark matter]". Dark matter, black holes, the Big Bang that created everything out of nothing, Hydrogen filled (H-filled) stars, neutrinos that oscillate away on demand, and H-fusion as the energy source for the Sun and the cosmos are imaginary products of scientists who waste their time and talents daydreaming instead of using the 3,000 mass data points representing all visible matter in the universe and Einstein's equation, E = mc^2, to advance mankind and understanding of our real universe: http://www.omatumr.com/Data/2000Data.htm . Oliver K. Manuel . http://myprofile.cos.com/manuelo09
Statements closer to the end of the article contradict those at the beginning and reveal a clear play of words around this "discovery" (among so many other ones!) open to any "suitable" interpretation. It is that kind of "officially great" science that consumes huge sums of public money for decades (practically all society investment in science), while alternatives of much more efficient knowledge development certainly exist but are subjectively suppressed by "organised" official sages (where's their difference from organised crime, really?!). It's interesting that "dark-matter" manipulations are peaking in Italy known for many other abuses, in science and beyond (with scientific Mafia absolutely dominating on a world scale and therefore being much more dangerous than any practical-life branch of the same phenomenon!)... One could add that supersymmetry ideas have been repeatedly disproved experimentally (let alone being completely inconsistent even in theory) and still they're used as a major basis for the new, ever more expensive, cosmic-scale experiments... But neither this, nor any other, however detailed and convincing discussion can change anything in the ultimately abusive, anti-efficient operation of today's science machine that exists totally for its own sake, i.e. unconditionally continuing, growing profits of its "officially great" priests and related bureaucracy... See e.g. http://arXiv.org/abs/physics/0401164 , http://arXiv.org/abs/physics/0601140 for a provable, working (experimentally and theoretically consistent) alternative without supernatural mysteries and redundant entities and http://arxiv.org/abs/0705.4562 for a more detailed description of the related science disease and the cure exceeding any particular "model" of always escaping reality. But who can help to practically start a new life in human knowledge development, a life free from antagonistic, selfish fight, corruption and destructive "scientific revolutions", a life of never-ending creation and progress? It's a strange coincidence that a world unable to efficiently use its huge scientific resources/investments (private initiative including) also appears to be unable to solve its elementary practical problems and avoid stupid conflicts persisting there where one could so naturally have a growing, exciting prosperity of the creative-knowledge-based society... You had your chance.
call me foolish , but the theory , of super symetry , forming our universe, i am thinking the so positioned space between sun, moon and earth, other objects according to gravity , says to me it is a good theory, yet the other edge im putting here , is perhaps , as dark matter passes through the earth and everything , universe, ,[ as with a conventional ideal everything in its place means our symetry is due to an outer edge? or does it ?] ive come to the idea that it is the shere mass of dark matter creating this equal space , and symetry, not the idea of an outer space curvature, then it brought to mind were we to bend space and time so we were not of this dimension , we would be passing to a levle of dark matter , where in fact the parralell universes , and idea of a multiverse would be seen. ,. massive flights of fancy yes .but such a lovely idea than living life in a bubble.
I find the whole idea of dark matter esthetically distasteful. It predicts nothing and exists solely to make the numbers add up! Some would argue that esthetics have no bearing, but science is supposed to illuminate. 85% of the universe is non-interacting mystery particles. Its unseemly. Pioneer anomaly anyone?
You are right, Christopher. The Dark Ages are here now. A. Scientists ignore 3,000 mass data points representing all VISIBLE matter in the universe [1], the natural cosmic cycle of energy (E) <-> mass (m) [2], and Einstein's equation showing the energy that sustains life and powers the Sun {E = mc^2}. B. Scientists entertain themselves with "scientific" studies of INVISIBLE dark matter. Meanwhile the public is told that CO2 causes global warming! REFERENCES: [1.] "The Cradle of the Nuclides": http://www.omatumr.com/Data/2000Data.htm [2.] "The cosmic nuclear cycle and the similarity of nuclei and stars," Journal of Fusion Energy 25 (2006) 107-114: http://arxiv.org/pdf/nucl-th/0511051v1 or http://www.omatumr.com/abstracts2006/NuclearCycleCosmosFigsInserted.pdf Oliver K. Manuel . http://myprofile.cos.com/manuelo09