Dark Stuff?

[Iskariot]

Of course some cosmologists say the whole dark matter thing is rubbish Proponents of MoND theory suggest that by modifying Newton's theory of gravity you can do away with the need for the dark matter entirely. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modified_Newtonian_dynamics

There is a great article in the New Scientist of may this year called "It is time to give up on dark matter".
There seems to be an alternative called Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND).
A single MOND formula is said to perfectly account for every discrepancy current theories invoke dark matter for.

 

[Vargur]

I doubt they will dabble with dark matter an dark energy in ED except it being mentioned in fluff for the sake of scientific completeness.

It's a field of physics where even the best physicists don't really have a clue about what they are dealing with, so there's no point in FD using it since it will just turn everything into some cheap deus ex machina science fiction setting.

Stuff like going faster than light, warp and jump drives, technical feasible space ships and all that aren't really into that category. They are deemed theoretically possible (to some degree anyway) even with our understanding of physics, although we can't make it with our current technology.

 

[Dinosawer]

There is a great article in the New Scientist of may this year called "It is time to give up on dark matter".
There seems to be an alternative called Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND).
A single MOND formula is said to perfectly account for every discrepancy current theories invoke dark matter for.

Not really. For galaxies yes, but for galaxy clusters not. Read the Wikipedia article on MoND, especially the last part of "consistency with observations" and the "criticisms" part, it's far from a perfect theory (as is dark matter, obviously). So the dark matter problem is far from solved.

 

[Iskariot]

I doubt they will dabble with dark matter an dark energy in ED except it being mentioned in fluff for the sake of scientific completeness.

I agree it is not necessary for a game like ED.
But perhaps FD could adopt MOND in fluff as the theory that did away with dark matter. Would be fun I think.

 

[Hydrino]

Several recent articles showing anomalous spectral lines where none belong. Harvard Center for Astrophysics for example. Since almost all the universe is Hydrogen the most logical candidate is a more tightly bound hydrogen atom (just a proton and electron) that would not be very reactive. It doesn't require any weird non-physical conjecture that can't be tested like string theory.

Dark matter could be a game element but it is best for FD not to chain the magic jump drives and super cruise to any idea since they could be simply impractical even if theoretically or. Mathematically possible, disproved or ridiculous like the alcubierre warp drive and hot fusion.