When scientists are baffled by facts that contradict their strongest theories, science is likely on the cusp of new insights.
That’s why I was saddened when scientists discovered the Higgs boson – or “god particle.” It meant CERN’s $20 quadrillion (or whatever) Large Hadron Collider did not uncover new facts that would force physicists to re-think their theories and provide clues how they might bend those theories closer to reality. It merely provided greater support for what physicists already believed.
This process of gaining knowledge from proof of our ignorance is also why it’s fabulous that “The newly discovered LQC is so enormous… that theory predicts it shouldn’t exist.” The largest structure known to man consists of “73 quasars and spans about 1.6 billion light-years in most directions, though it is 4 billion light-years across at its widest point.” Even better than how mind-blowingly amazing that is, we have absolutely no clue how it got so massive because our best theories say it can’t exist! So we’ve just opened up very exciting new theoretical possibilities.
Science fans like me are incredibly lucky to live in the 21st Century, when science literally advances daily. My favorite site for following scientists’ latest discoveries: ScienceDaily.com.
(With appreciation to Antonio Vivace for the photo on Unsplash)