Redefining Reality - The Intellectual Implications of Modern Science

Earlier, we talked about Thomas Kuhn’s view of the history of science.
According to Kuhn, normal scientists work within a paradigm that
sets out a certain picture of reality. Occasionally, however, anomalies
appear; when this happens often enough, science enters a period of crisis. In
this lecture, we’ll look at cosmology at the turn of the 21 st century to see if
models of the big bang and the positing of dark matter and dark energy. New
elements are being added to our understanding of reality that have not yet
been experimentally or observationally discovered. Is this a simple tweak or
the harbinger of something more important?
Although the big bang theory has become nearly universally
concerns a class of missing particles called magnetic monopoles.
Like electricity, magnetism involves two charges, referred
to as north and south; further, like magnetic charges repel
and opposite charges attract. There is, however, one major
difference between electricity and magnetism: Particles can
have a particular electrical charge in and of themselves, but we
never see this with magnets.
For example, a bar magnet has a north end and a south end.
If you break the bar in half, you end up with two dipolar
magnets—each with a north and a south end. We have never
seen a magnetic monopole, one that is just a north in itself or
just a south in itself.
But if the standard model is correct, then there was a stage in
the early universe when the energy density would have been
just right to create many magnetic monopoles. Further, these
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