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Comment by cogogo | Hacker News Reader

Reminded me of this thread from a couple of days ago. Interesting that both Riess and Gough argue there's a sociological phenomenon amongst cosmologists. Though who knows what Riess might think of the "blowtorch theory." https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44115973

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I have a phd in astronomy and I spent some time reading it yesterday. I don't think he'd think much of it. The theory seems to be aimed at explaining the existence of cosmic voids and the structure of the cosmic web. But these are pretty naturally explained by lambda CDM. And if the goal is to explain away dark matter, there are other pieces of evidence for dark matter that wouldn't be explained by this theory. At any rate, as far as I can tell it's not a quantitative theory so it would be hard to tie it to observations.

Interesting thanks!

Every scientist knows there is a sociological component to the practice of science. This is not a novel or noteworthy observation and I don’t think Riess was intending it to be.

Also, every cosmologist knows the standard model is not the final answer. I think the author is really trying to overstate the controversy.

But many non-cosmologists like me aren’t so aware. Many of us learned basic physics where the standard model is treated as a given. Or the standard if you don’t mind dad jokes.

I happen to not be a scientist but found the observation interesting given the overlapping subject matter. Especially given the stark differences in training/background. E.g. scientist/not scientist.

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