How dark is the cosmic web?

Written by thehouseofvines

This interesting story came across my newsfeed:

The universe is permeated by a vast, invisible web, its tendrils weaving through space. But despite organizing the matter we see in space, this dark web is invisible. That’s because it is made up of dark matter, which exerts a gravitational pull but emits no light. That is, the web was invisible until now. For the first time, researchers have illuminated some of the darkest corners of the universe.

How wyrd. 

I mean, isn’t it funny how science is just now starting to catch up to shit our ancestors grasped thousands of years ago? 

Relatedly, a spider’s web is part of its mind, new research suggests:

Spiders, it turns out, appear to possess an extraordinary form of consciousness that we’re only beginning to understand, and it has to do with their webs, reports New Scientist. Researchers are slowly coming around to the idea that spider webbing is an essential part of these creatures’ cognitive apparatus. The animals don’t just use their webs to sense with; they use them to think. It’s part of a theory of mind known as “extended cognition,” and humans utilize it too.

7 thoughts on “How dark is the cosmic web?”

  1. The crazy thing is that most of the universe is made of stuff called dark matter and dark energy (about 90% if I’m not mistaken) and for the longest time no one knows what this stuff does. Scientists know it’s there because the math makes more sense when it’s taken into account but it’s just mind-blowing to think that we only have a grasp of a measly portion of existence.

    “Man’s so puny and the universe so big!” -Joker (The Killing Joke)

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  2. What’s even crazier to think about is anti-matter. Astrophysicists tell us that based on their calculations there should be a ton of anti-matter floating around. Enough to have made entire star systems made of anti-matter. Maybe even anti-matter life. And yet there is none to be found. So where is it? Granted, it’s probably good we haven’t found any since anti-matter is predicted to be able to destroy regular matter by canceling each other out. If you were to somehow take a pinch of anti-matter and drop it in the middle of Time Square, the energy released from the reaction would level New York.

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  3. One of my favorite concepts in science is the uncertainty principle within plank’s constant within particle physics. In physics – as in math – we live in a world where numbers comprise and calculate our universe. These are ladders, bridges and explanations, told in the purest and simplest of languages – mathematics. On the particle level, we know that when we try to shine a light at a particle, it starts to spin and move from the energy it gets from this. However, what is interesting is that there is a range of uncertainty with which it happens. One particle hits another and makes the ones next to it move. Uncertainty principle tells that that there will always be a level of uncertainty to this, however, a range rather then the exact number. The rate and direction of this pattern cannot be precisely calculated. Therefore, quantum physics, its its own mathematical language, advises us that on a particle level, while there exists a range, the future must remain uncertain to a degree. There is a comfort in this… It reminds us that while fate exists, just as there is a range in the uncertainty principle, there is always some latitude for us to do what we chose to do. Science in this perfectly reflects our concepts of wyrd, debt and fate – we can only have so much latitude, but to assume that we have no influence on anything whatsoever is incorrect even on the quantum level.

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  4. The research coming out of observational and simulation astronomy and cosmology for the past 10-20 years has been exceptionally fun. Instrumentation and computing power are finally good enough to do a lot of cutting-edge things with low levels of uncertainty.

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