
Physics tweak solves five of the biggest problems in one go - aethertap
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2110591-physics-tweak-solves-five-of-the-biggest-problems-in-one-go/
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ccvannorman
Headline: Single theory solves 5 physics problems including 2 of my favorites,
dark matter and inflation

Reality: Some scientists invented fields/particles to fit what we already know
about inflation and dark matter

Prediction: Neither of these two particles will be found

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dzdt
I agree. It sounds like epicycles to me. [
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deferent_and_epicycle](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deferent_and_epicycle)]

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Terr_
> Dubbed SMASH, the model is based on the standard model of particle physics,
> but has a few bits tacked on.

That sounds very familiar... [https://xkcd.com/793/](https://xkcd.com/793/)

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andrewflnr
Uh, not really. To start with, it's physicists on both sides in this case.

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Terr_
I'm saying it seems to validate the joke about how physicists approach theory
problems.

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andrewflnr
Yeah, because _that 's how physics is done_. Bringing up how that approach
fails when applied to other fields is a non sequitur.

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nonbel
>“The best thing about the theory is that it can be tested or checked within
the next 10 years or so,” Ringwald says. “You can always invent new theories,
but if they can only be tested in 100 years, or never, then this is not real
science but meta-science.”

Is that a dig at climate research?

Also, I don't see why kugelblitz* are not invoked more often in these theories
about the early universe. You could go

    
    
      EM-radiation-only universe 
         --fluctuation above density threshold--> 
      EM-radiation + BH universe 
         --pair production with BH as momentum sinks--> 
      EM-radiation + BH + matter + antimatter universe
    

I do not claim to really know what I am talking about, just a vague sketch.

    
    
      *https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kugelblitz_%28astrophysics%29
    

Edit: I forgot to add, where does all the antimatter go? Clearly some small
proportion of matter/anitmatter generated will get incorporated into the BH
soon after creation, but what is the probability of this happening in
_exactly_ equal proportions at all times? I don't know what is supposed to
determine the direction and momentum of these newly created particles, but if
it is "random" then that would be essentially zero.

So from that you get a tiny imbalance and annihilation will take care of the
rest.

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bmh100
The "meta-science" comment is a strange one. By that definition, gravitational
waves, Bose-Einstein condensates, Higgs bosons, genes, and dark matter were
all "meta-science".

~~~
jsprogrammer
What is so strange about it? If a theory is not and cannot be tested, it is
not science by definition.

That doesn't mean the theory is not valuable, just that you need a different
word to describe it. If a theory may become testable in the future, but is not
currently, meta-science seems as good as any other term.

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thisrod
"Speculative science" is the normal way to describe that.

