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COSMIC GEOMETRY. “It’s hard to measure the inner slope of the MW’s density profile, as baryons dominate at small radii. The large measured microlensing optical depth towards the Galactic centre implies large stellar densities in the inner MW, which appears to be in tension with the high DM densities at small radii of ‘cuspy’ density profiles.” (MW = Milky Way; DM = dark matter). https://lnkd.in/e6ifiQMn View in LinkedIn

DOMINANT ERRORS. “It should also be noted that there isn’t a rigid divide between theory/simulations and observations; modelling is required to interpret observations and the statistical errors are often now so small that systematic errors are significant, or even dominant.” https://lnkd.in/e6ifiQMn View in LinkedIn

ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM. “The ΛCDM cosmological model, in which the Universe is flat with 25% of the energy density being in the form of cold, non-baryonic, dark matter is a good fit to a wide range of observations (nucleosynthesis, CMB, large scale structure, type 1a supernovae). However we don’t (yet...) know what dark matter (or dark energy) is.” (ΛCDM = A-Cold-Dark-Matter standard model of cosmology; CMB = cosmic microwave background). https://lnkd.in/e6ifiQMn View in LinkedIn

DARK QUANTA OBEY INFINITE STATISTICS. “This property of dark matter may lead to some non-particle phenomenology and may explain why dark matter particles have not been detected in dark matter search experiments.” https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/21/11/1035/htm View in LinkedIn

COSMIC FOSSILS. “PBHs are black holes, with masses M > 10(15) g, that form in the early Universe from large over-densities.” (PBH = Primordial Black Holes). https://lnkd.in/e6ifiQMn View in LinkedIn

A lovely bracket fungus in the woods. I have preserved specimens for many decades. View in LinkedIn

Halrlequin stink bug in her full glory basing in the sun. View in LinkedIn

CLONAL ELMS. “As a genus they have given up sex, and the trees spread by putting out suckers. In normal circumstances this means that if elms are cut down (or blown up as they were in Flanders in the First World War) they re-grow from shoots below ground. By this means a stand of elms may live for many hundreds of years. But the elm’s dependency on cloning for renewal also makes them vulnerable to sickness.” https://lnkd.in/eSunuQVx View in LinkedIn

“FAR OUT in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-two million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea.” (Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe). https://lnkd.in/ei-_8xs6 View in LinkedIn

CAUTION. “Unlike ordinary matter, the quanta of the dark sector are shown to obey infinite statistics.” https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/21/11/1035/htm View in LinkedIn