The insinuation packed in this statement is beyond ridiculous. As if there was a giant conspiracy by Big Cosmology. What makes you think asking questions isn't welcome? Go visit your local college, they probably have a weekly seminar open for everybody. Observe how they interact. Scientists and students ask each other questions (and I mean hard questions) all the time. Pointing out failures in each other theories is the scientists' favorite past time. It's literally how science works.
The structure formation of dark matter is extensively studied and simulations are in good agreement with observations (not perfect though, look up the dwarf galaxy problem).
> I'm astounded at the amount of - quite literally - made up unsubstantiated assumptions about DM.
This is done all the time in cosmology: let's assume X is true just for the heck of it, what does that mean for Y? Could we observe it? Would it perhaps explain several observations at once?
Even toy worlds or toy models are explored all the time, by which I mean worlds or models that we know do not describe our world. Valuable insights can still be gained.
And why wouldn't they make some assumptions? Would you prefer it if certain ideas are forbidden to be explored?
>> As if there was a giant conspiracy by Big Cosmology. What makes you think asking questions isn't welcome?
Because they're not? Proposing a specific distribution of fairy dust immediately begs two questions. "What is it?" - ok I'll let that slide, but "why that distribution?" is critical. It is claimed to influence regular mater via gravity, so why should it take on a different distribution? It "solves" one problem but creates many more. Hey if there's a math model to explain one phenomenon, why does it differ from the existing stuff under the same influence? If peer review doesn't force them to address such questions, there is no hope for me to do so.
The inevitable process of science involves raising questions that, at first, do not have answers. Publications are not exam papers where peer reviewers have the answer key. The process of science is also a communal activity, where one scientist raises a question in one forum, and the answer comes from a different scientist years later. Peer review should not and does not (per your own admission) suppress the raising of unanswered questions. And this contradicts your earlier claim that asking questions isn't welcome.
There is no shortage of explantions aimed at a smart highschool or undergraduate student which will answer most of those questions. Obviously not "what is it?", that is one of the biggest open questions in cosmology.
The answer is you have to understand the math to understand the theory. Popular accounts are always an approximation, but if the theory were easily refuted by lay people, scientists would not be basing entire research programs on it.
The insinuation packed in this statement is beyond ridiculous. As if there was a giant conspiracy by Big Cosmology. What makes you think asking questions isn't welcome? Go visit your local college, they probably have a weekly seminar open for everybody. Observe how they interact. Scientists and students ask each other questions (and I mean hard questions) all the time. Pointing out failures in each other theories is the scientists' favorite past time. It's literally how science works.
The structure formation of dark matter is extensively studied and simulations are in good agreement with observations (not perfect though, look up the dwarf galaxy problem).
> I'm astounded at the amount of - quite literally - made up unsubstantiated assumptions about DM.
This is done all the time in cosmology: let's assume X is true just for the heck of it, what does that mean for Y? Could we observe it? Would it perhaps explain several observations at once?
Even toy worlds or toy models are explored all the time, by which I mean worlds or models that we know do not describe our world. Valuable insights can still be gained.
And why wouldn't they make some assumptions? Would you prefer it if certain ideas are forbidden to be explored?