The dark side of the universe
I had written previously about the blurry nature of the answer to the question "What is it that makes us human?" To me it seems like science, arts, and philosophy may be the three truly human activities. Had I been brave enough to pursue my " Teenage Dreams ," I would have been a theoretical physicist, and rather than getting excited about what I read in popular science magazines, I would be working on these topics. Lately, my favorite reading on the Internet are the 3 "Dark Mysteries" of cosmology. Let me introduce you to the three biggest issues that challenge our understanding of the universe: Dark Matter This is the most "basic" problem, in the sense that it can be understood by employing basic Newtonian physics. If you ever had a long key chain, I am sure you did spin the key chain. Given a constant spinning force, the velocity with which the keys spin depend on the length of the chain, and the mass of the keys. It is not trivial to extend t...