the EEEL by tNYPress

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Excerpt from “Mullings”

“There are more than 100 billion galaxies in the known universe and the several largest of these contain nearly 400 billion stars.”

But of course, we are still convinced we are the only inhabitants of the known universe, the residents of planet Earth, circling a single small star in one of the 100 billion galaxies. Hubris, anyone?
“According to Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity, there are three possible shapes the universe can have–open, closed, and flat. Measurements taken by WMAP (Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe) on the CMBR (cosmic microwave background radiation) reveal and confirm that the Universe is flat.”

I feel this curious sense of deja vu.
“An essential ingredient of the Standard Model of the universe is a particle called the Higgs boson and it has yet to be found in an experiment.”

This seems a paradox to me. The presence of something as yet undiscovered suggests an article of faith, which is strictly forbidden in science.
“The total number of atoms in the universe is 10^78 to 10^82.”

That’s two lines of zeros–I think. Come on, now! Who counted? First off, the fact is that close to 25% of the universe is dark matter and close to 75% of it is dark energy. Scientists have no idea what those things are as yet. They confess to this. That leaves maybe 5% accounted for by stars, planets, dust, etc. that they CAN measure and count. Thus, a valid statistical confirmation of the number of atoms in the universe is NOT a probable outcome.

To read the rest of these reflections on science (and the sci-fi story), check out http://theeeel.com/mullings-regina-clarke/