Dr Pamela L. Gay is an astronomer, writer, and podcaster focused on using new media to engage people in science and technology. Explore online, learn, and discover!Ghosts are NOT Dark Matter
Just a quick one tonight.
At Dragon*Con (which I won’t mention again until next summer) some fascinatingly misguided person suggested that ghosts are made of Dark Matter. Dark matter is the missing 22% of the stuff the universe is made of. This is stuff – it is just stuff that doesn’t interact with the electromagnetic force in a noticeable way. This means it does not obscure light (like dust), it does not give off light (like stars), it does not chemically interact, or in fact it does not do anything other than move stuff with its mass via gravity. This means that if you can see something, it is not Dark Matter. This means that if you can detect something as a cold spot (which implies something happened to the heat energy in that spot), and if you can measure something via some electromagnetic something (changes in inductance, conductance, etc of air), it cannot be dark matter.
I do not believe ghosts have been proven to exist.
That said, the folks trying to prove they exist have “results” based on stuff that requires ghosts interact via the electromagnetic force.
If dark matter was as visible as they claim ghosts are, my job would be a whole lot easier. Dark Matter can only be detected via gravity. Ghosts cannot be made of dark matter based on any of the “Observables” ghost hunters tote out.
One more point: if you try and claim ghosts use gravity to move stuff around, then they couldn’t selectively move things because they’d need HUGE amounts of mass to move a small chair, and in the process they’d probably bend walls and collapse ceilings. They could not simply push or pull on the chair because without the electromagnetic force at play, dark matter pretty much just passes straight through normal matter (like chairs).
In case you missed it, ghosts are not made out of Dark Matter.
Try again, and please stay out of astronomy next time.
Dark matter is a fascinating subject to me! All my internet searches on it have turned up a myriad of ideas about what it could be or what its purpose is. I find it very interesting to hear others opinions and thoughts about it. But even I know how to draw the line at statements far outside the realm of possibilities. I don’t personally believe there are ghosts but I love it when evidence is presented instead of just opinion. Thanks Dr. Gay!
Want to bet how soon claims of ghosts being made of dark energy will come out?
They can’t be dark matter, because everyone knows that ghosts are white!
If it’s not ghosts, someone like Silvia Brown will claim it’s spiritual energy or souls of the unborn. Although perhaps its a good thing that most quacks don’t read science magazines much or I can just imagine what crazy theory’s they’d spread around like ghost thing. Or perhaps it’s too bad that they don’t pay more attention to the scientific community or they might have a more informed perspective. I guess its a lose-lose situation either way.
ooohh love it when a hard core scientist tears a nutcase apart.
especially liked the way she explains – “..try and claim ghosts use gravity to move stuff around, then they couldn’t selectively move things because they’d need HUGE amounts of mass to move a small chair, and in the process they’d probably bend walls and collapse ceilings.” you paint such a beautiful mind-picture, could really imagine that scene in my mind complete with special effects- could almost see the walls slowly bend and distort and the ceiling comes crashing down with a Bang!
way to go Doc, a veritable Dana Scully.
4.45 a.m
Calcutta, India.
BREAKING NEWS from Science News
PAMELA may have spotted the dark stuff
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/36202/title/PAMELA_may_have_spotted_the_dark_stuff
An orbiting observatory may have discovered particles of dark matter — the proposed, invisible material that researchers believe holds the universe together.
It would have been wonderful to read your opinions, which I’m sure I would have agreed with, if it weren’t for the ad for Swinbourne Online across the bloody page!
Hi Amanda,
What is wrong with the ad for Swinburne? I’m one of their instructors and haven’t had a negative experience so far. If either my theme is bust or you had a negative experience with SAO, please let me know.
Cheers – Pamela
Nothing wrong with the ad itself, but there’s something screwy with the way the page renders, such that the ad obscures the rightmost edge of the text. Either your text is overstepping its bounds (probable) or the ad’s made of dark matter and is exerting its influence over the text.
Either way, I had to adblock the image to read the article (which, btw, I enjoyed).
i dont know any thing about matters but maybe anti matter , i want to hear you explain why they are not made of anti matter
how can you simply dissmiss the connection between 2 extremely unkown substances. we don’t how dark matter reacts to regular matter and no one knows how/if ghosts exist. if you look at M-theory they talk about how the big bang was a collision between 2 membranes. it also discribes the existence of at least 10 other spatial dimensions. if matter cannot be created or destroyed, what happens to the “soul” of human beings? do we just turn into the potential energy of the matter of our bodies? what if our souls travel to an unknown dimension. what if we have possible interactions between these unkown dimensions in which perhaps time doesn’t exist (at least as we know it to exist)? is it so ridiculous for people to think that something as silly as ghosts or spirits may have an actual explanation through science?