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Cosmology situation
http://aeon.co/magazine/science/has-...eative-crisis/
Steinhardt was one of the first high-profile physicists to question BICEP2's findings in public. In a column for Nature last June, he said that the team's analysis was seriously flawed. Few cosmologists were surprised. Steinhardt is inflationary theory's most vocal critic, and has been for years. But perhaps critic is the wrong word. Apostate might be better, for Steinhardt was present at inflation's birth. You might even say he midwifed it. 'The last 30 years is a very unusual period in the history of fundamental physics and cosmology,' Steinhardt told me. 'There's confusion, and maybe even a certain amount of fear. People are wedded to these ideas, because they grew up with them. Scientists don't like to change ideas unless they're forced to. They get involved with a theory. They get emotionally attached to it. When an idea is looking shaky, they go into defensive mode. If you're working on something besides inflation, you find yourself outside the social network, and you don't get many citations. Only a few brave souls are willing to risk that.' I teased Steinhardt, pointing out that he hadn't exactly been hauled before the Inquisition. Steinhardt is fully tenured, a lion of Princeton's storied physics department. He walks the same leafy streets that Albert Einstein walked. Indeed, his official title at Princeton is Albert Einstein Professor in Science. Still, he feels overmatched. He told me he has asked for help from outside the field. 'The outside community isn't recognising the problem,' he said. 'This whole BICEP2 thing has made some people more aware of it. It's been nice to have that aired out. But most people give us too much respect. They think we know what we're doing. They take too seriously these voices that say inflation is established theory.' |
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Cosmology situation
In article , jacobnavia
writes: Steinhardt was one of the first high-profile physicists to question BICEP2's findings in public. In a column for Nature last June, he said that the team's analysis was seriously flawed. Few cosmologists were surprised. Steinhardt is inflationary theory's most vocal critic, and has been for years. But perhaps critic is the wrong word. Apostate might be better, for Steinhardt was present at inflation's birth. You might even say he midwifed it. In this respect (criticism of BICEP2), Steinhardt is mainstream. Yes, the BICEP2 folks, perhaps because of a belief in inflation, were too quick in making their claim. By the same token, Steinhardt might be too quick to criticize because of his disbelief in inflation. OK, this time he was right. 'The last 30 years is a very unusual period in the history of fundamental physics and cosmology,' Steinhardt told me. 'There's confusion, and maybe even a certain amount of fear. People are wedded to these ideas, because they grew up with them. Scientists don't like to change ideas unless they're forced to. They get involved with a theory. They get emotionally attached to it. When an idea is looking shaky, they go into defensive mode. If you're working on something besides inflation, you find yourself outside the social network, and you don't get many citations. Only a few brave souls are willing to risk that.' This is true to some extent. On the other hand, inflation itself was once a radical idea, and now it is mainstream. The same goes for "dark energy" and "dark matter". Most people, though, get involved with a theory because of specific reasons, and it of course should take strong reasons for them to abandon it in favour of something else. And I'm sure that Steinhardt is rather passionate about his own new ideas. 'The outside community isn't recognising the problem,' he said. 'This whole BICEP2 thing has made some people more aware of it. It's been nice to have that aired out. But most people give us too much respect. They think we know what we're doing. They take too seriously these voices that say inflation is established theory.' He's exaggerating a bit here. Roger Penrose has long been a critic of inflation. Andreas Albrecht, another "midwife", has also recently pointed out conceptual problems with inflation. These aren't some obscure folks, but rather recognized leaders in the field. |
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