[bomelia]

Ron, that dark energy clip was really cool. I just read this book called "The Neptune Files" about how Neptune & Uranus (jokes not) was found. Uranus was found mathmatically. Its position was predicted, and eventually astonomers pointed their telescopes to see if it was there (and it was). Basically, Neptune would not behave. It was this odd behavior that led some to "predict" another planet was out there.

I work in science. I have long ago come to the conclusion that common sense is a rare predictor of truth. As soon as you think you know the answer or the outcome, you are surprised by the reality. Now, what surprises me is when the outcome does match expectations. And even then, I am wary.

In the early days of my career, this tendancy used to really bother me. Things should be more orderly. But that's how the ancients (and all the way though the 19th century felt) and that's what tends to slow progress. Its the Truth we are after, even if we do not like it. And, its what makes what I do so intersting! How boring it would be if there was nothing to learn or figure out.

So for years, scientists have believed (without evidence) that the universe was slowing down, like some cosmological analog to a fireworks display. And rather than find out for sure, they generated theory on top of theory with an assumption-as-fact as the foundation. Then someone decides to take a look (to be fair, technology usually lags theory in terms of being able to check for sure, some of Einsteins predictions are only now getting the thorough check-out they deserve because we now have the ability to do it) and lo and behold, things are not as they "should be".

Wanna get famous? Read books about scientists and their lifelong quests to prove something. Find something that has not been checked out yet. Use technology to check it out. Maybe, actually, more than likely, you will get to pull a block out of someone's foundation. And you will be famous.

Mike