he suggested locking or merging it due to an active dark matter thread already present, and it's one in which he's making an attempt to disprove newtonian gravity and dark matter.<br /><br /><br /><br />But, back onto this topic:<br /><br />Science <i>is</i> devoting a lot of resources towards dark matter and dark energy. Well, the astronomical field is. Astronomy has very few people in it compared to other branches of science, even "pure" science like particle physics.<br /><br />One of the reasons is the amount of work a single person can do in astronomy is still quite large. Particle physics requires dozens of people to analyze a particular experiment, astronomy often needs only one (or a small handfull of graduate/undergraduate students).<br /><br />The big reason though, is application. The knowledge astronomy gains has little to no direct impact or application to the real world. Some of the <i>methods</i> developed for the field are used elsewhere, but very little of the actual answers. As such it isn't funded nearly as much as say, again, particle physics. While particle physics is also "pure" science, it's research can lead to stronger and more exotic materials or devices due to a better understanding of the underlying atoms and quantum mechanics.<br /><br /><br />As for your notion that dark matter binds us all...it's only in the broadest sense, as gravity is very weak. On our scale, electric forces do far, far more to shape us than gravity does. It's only when you get to a planetary scale that gravity wins. Even then, dark matter is generally believed to be very dispersed, and so you need to get to the size scale of solar systems or star clusters to actually feel it's influence.<br /><br />Dark matter requires only two properties, it doesn't interact with light (i.e. it has no charge, like neutrons or neutrinos) and it has mass. Neutrinos fit the bill quite well, they have no charge, and have mass. The big problem with them as far as dark matter models are co <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p align="center"><font color="#c0c0c0"><br /></font></p><p align="center"><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">--------</font></em></font><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">--------</font></em></font><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">----</font></em></font><font color="#666699">SaiphMOD@gmail.com </font><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">-------------------</font></em></font></p><p><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">"This is my Timey Wimey Detector. Goes "bing" when there's stuff. It also fries eggs at 30 paces, wether you want it to or not actually. I've learned to stay away from hens: It's not pretty when they blow" -- </font></em></font><font size="1" color="#999999">The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>