The LA Times reports:

Dark energy, the enigmatic force that is causing the universe to expand, has been present and constant for at least 9 billion years, a finding that eliminates many of the theories developed to explain its mysterious role in the cosmos, astronomers said Thursday.

The finding provides further support for, but does not prove, Albert Einstein's idea that a repulsive form of gravity exists in space.

That theory, called the cosmological constant, was developed by Einstein to explain the balance between the expansion of the universe and the powerful gravitational pull of stars and other matter.

He eventually abandoned it, calling it the "biggest blunder" of his career, and the theory lay dormant until the discovery of dark energy in the late 1990s.

The finding that dark energy was present in the early stages of the universe "is a significant clue in the quest to understand what is probably one of the most, if not the most, pressing problems in physics," said astrophysicist Adam Riess of Johns Hopkins University, who led the team making the announcement.

The research, which will be published in the February issue of Astrophysical Journal, is the latest in a series of discoveries that have "opened up a completely new realm of understanding about how gravity works," said theoretical astronomer Sean Carroll of Caltech, who was not involved in the research.

Dark energy is analogous to dark matter; scientists have extreme difficulty seeing and measuring them directly, inferring their presence primarily by their effects on visible matter. Dark energy accounts for about 70% of the energy in the universe, scientists believe.

In the interests of Better BS, I offer the thought that "as above, so below" -- the possibility that it is also true that 70% of the thought in the universe is "dark thought", whose characteristics include a tendency to repel prepared minds, and a sort of non-analytical, automatic stimulus response character which places it in opposition to the effort of "clear" thought to disentangle, differentiate and understand. "Dark thought" tends to compress, and be inappropriate to the moment, and collapse thigns together that are in fact different.

Some threads are rich in dark thought -- for example where anonymous posters voice antagonistic or harmful sentiments.


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