Dark matter and the 'theory of everything'

[padremo]

Has the discovery of dark matter and dark energy demolished our chances of finding a "theory of everything" any time soon - as I understand it string theorists say they are close(ish) to finding such a theory, but all our theories to date (including quantum mechanics and special relativity as well as string theory) are only able to describe 4% of reality (or have I (hopefully) got it wrong and dark matter/energy can be explained by 'one of the above')?

Rob.

 

[Energex42]

My guess is the efforts on Quantom Gravity will have to be guided by observations, either experiemental or astronomical observations.

Everytime some new observations come out, I can see the theories evolve very quickly to catch up. After certain point, I would expect the theories to be able to make testable predictions. A theory cannot be considered grown up until it can make predictions.

 

[Qleap1000]

Discovery of Dark Mater Guides our Course

I too, back in the late 90's was very disturbed at how the course of physics would handle the discovery of such vast amounts of "Dark Matter" and furthermore "Dark Energy." I mean my jaw dropped when I understood the ramifications...which was immediate and I am only a layman physicist.

To understand it completely one needs to go back to the the equations of Faraday and Maxwell in classic physics. Even Niels Bore and Einstein always said there is more that we do not understand. Einstein was particulary plagued that he could not resolve the "Unified Field Theory."
It is interesting to note that most of the equations for the E=MC2 equation came from a compilation and integration from the mathematic forumula already derived by other scientists.

Now if you will go back to the science of the late 1800's and early 1900's
and read and understand what they had to say then about Zero Point Energy, you might leap into an understanding of the quantum field that will emerge into a new understanding of Gravity and a Unified Theory as well.

Read here. Easy!

http://www.calphysics.org/zpe.html

for further easy links just go here-

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=zero+point+energy&btnG=Google+Search

 

[Epicurus]

That first link is the just about the worst explanation for why helium does not freeze under atmospheric pressure that I have ever seen. Why does not any 'fluid' freeze as everything has a minimum energy. Load of bollocks. I wish people would look at things properly instead of trying to incorporate every single piece of phenomena to support their arguements.