Double Dark Theory could explain the origin of the universe and its current state, said a wife-and-husband team of science authors at the final Frontiers of Science Lecture on April 12.
“In the past decade, every single theory has been ruled out except one,” said Joel Primack, professor of physics at the University of California at Santa Cruz. He and his spouse, Nancy Ellen Abrams-a lawyer, writer and Fulbright scholar-wrote the book, The View from the Center of the Universe: Discovering our Extraordinary Place in the Cosmos.
Primack explained that undetectable particles called dark matter, inferred only by their gravitational influence, make up 25 percent of the matter in the universe. Another 70 percent of the matter occurs as a mysterious substance called dark energy.
Unlike the gravitational forces of dark matter that bind galaxies together, dark energy causes space to repel itself, accelerating the expansion of the universe.
Abrams compared dark energy to a vast ocean. Ghost ships of dark matter sail on that ocean with only the tips of their mast, representing galaxies, visible.
“We don’t see the ships, we don’t see the ocean, but we know they’re there,” he said.
Accounting for only 0.1 percent of the matter in the universe, the heavy elements of ordinary matter that make up the earth formed within the core of burning stars or during their cataclysmic supernova explosions.
“We?are made of the rarest material in the universe,” Abrams said.
Primack said Double Dark Theory, widely known as Lambda-Cold Dark Matter Theory, successfully calculates the distribution of matter and the size of galaxies observed today. Double Dark Theory also predicts minute fluctuations in the cosmic background radiation left over from the big bang.
In March of 2006, NASA released a high-resolution map of the cosmic microwave background radiation from a satellite that confirmed predictions made with Double Dark Theory.
The theory uses data produced from supercomputers about the dark energy to speculate on the origins of the universe.
Based in advanced theoretical physics, the Double Dark Theory states that quantum ripples in the early inflationary period of the universe, when matter started to expand, resulted in slight variations in the otherwise uniform distribution of dark matter. As these regions evolved, ordinary matter combined at the center to become the galactic clusters where the first stars ignited.
From the vantage point of Earth, Abrams explained, “we are cosmically central” rather than insignificant specks in a vast universe.
“Without consciousness, there is no visible universe,” she said. “We have the choice today to find meaning in our extraordinary place in the universe.”
Primack said that while scientists have a responsibility to explain their findings, assigning meaning is a personal pursuit.
“Science is not the last word. It should be the first word,” he said.
Paolo Gondolo, assistant professor of physics, also researches the nature of dark matter and dark energy and said he liked the message that we are not insignificant.
“Science is more than just dry and boring facts,” he said. “This is an adventure.”
Matt Weinstock, junior in biochemistry, felt uncomfortable with the lecture.
“(Primack) will only look at something scientifically,” he said, adding that the lecture’s explanation of the universe left too much to random chance.
“I don’t think you can assign any moral value or purpose to anything that is completely random,” Weinstock said.