modernism

[David Morris]

On Nov 16, 2007 4:12 PM, Monte Davis <monte.davis at verizon.net> wrote:
> How many of our assignments of artists and works to epochs and eras and periods are optical illusions, canals on Mars, Bermuda triangles, born of our inability to grapple with big, many-dimensional data clouds as "just one damn thing after another"?

http://www.wired.com/science/space/news/2007/11/big_bang

Most astronomers say that world-famous images from the Cosmic
Background Explorer satellite show structures of the early universe.
But a lone radio astronomer is claiming that the pictures depict
nearby hydrogen gas clouds in our own galaxy, calling a key theory
into question.

Astronomers are abuzz because if Gerrit Verschuur of the University of
Memphis is right, one of the most important theories developed in the
past 15 years -- one that won a Nobel Prize -- would be toppled. The
world's top astronomical publication, Astrophysical Journal, will
publish Verschuur's research December 10.

"If I'm right, this is a paradigm shift," said Verschuur, who is 70
and a well-known author of numerous books on astronomy.

It would mean our understanding of how the cosmos was born 14 billion
years ago is seriously flawed. Astronomers would have redder faces
than they've had since the beginning of the 20th century, when some
scientists claimed they saw "canals" built by Martians on the red
planet.