Dark Cosmos - book review

Dark Cosmos, In Search of our Universe's Missing Mass and Energy by Dan Hooper is one of those books that I read with wonder and excitement while understanding about 10% of the content. It's not the author's fault either. There have just been so many changes in physics since I was in college that I keep trying to apply my old knowledge to these new ideas and coming up short.

According to Hooper, observations of our universe indicate that about 70% of the mass and energy that should be observable is energy that has not been detected. Scientists are calling this "dark energy". A majority of the remaining 30% of the universe is "dark matter", so-called again because it has not been detected. While there are some candidates for dark matter such as the neutrino, there is only speculation about how the dark energy can exist undetected.

Hooper does claim that "skepticism is one of the most important qualities a scientist can have". Since the existence of dark matter and dark energy depends upon our observations and the current theory of gravity, it may be that that theory needs to be modified in certain cosmological situations. In fact, one group has done that with a theory called MOdified Newtonian Dynamics, or MOND for short. This theory comes closer to predicting no dark matter or energy but does not eliminate them.

It's exciting to read about the latest developments in cosmology, especially with a writer who can write about such things in very understandable terms.