{"id":39755,"date":"2021-01-11T10:45:06","date_gmt":"2021-01-11T10:45:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cupblog.bluefusesystems.com\/?p=39755"},"modified":"2021-01-11T12:44:57","modified_gmt":"2021-01-11T12:44:57","slug":"dark-matter-dark-energy-life-and-the-fifth-element","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/blog\/2021\/01\/11\/dark-matter-dark-energy-life-and-the-fifth-element\/","title":{"rendered":"Dark Matter, Dark Energy, Life, and the Fifth Element"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Ancient Greece and the Fifth Element<\/strong>
The ancient Greeks had words for it – the \u201cFifth Element\u201d or \u201cQuintessence\u201d, an invisible material filling unoccupied space in our Universe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quintessence and Dark Energy<\/strong>
Quintessence is associated with time-varying \u201cdark energy\u201d that propels the measured accelerating expansion of the Universe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Cosmological Constant and Dark Energy<\/strong>
Quintessence contrasts with a \u201ccosmological constant\u201d. Unfortunately, quantum electrodynamics yields a value 10120 times the cosmic microwave background (CMB) value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Evidence for Quintessence<\/strong>
In November 2020, cosmologists reported they have identified a tentative CMB signature of quintessence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quintessential Water Nanoclusters from Cosmic Dust<\/strong>
Coincidentally, in November 2020, Dr. Keith Johnson, MIT Professor Emeritus, heard from the \u201cInternational Journal of Astrobiology\u201d that his paper, \u201cCosmology, Astrobiology, and the RNA World: Just Add Quintessential Water\u201d<\/em><\/a> had been accepted for publication. There he proposes cosmic water nanoclusters ejected from abundant ice-coated cosmic dust constitute a \u201cquintessence scalar field\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quintessential Water as Dark Matter<\/strong>
Quintessential cosmic water nanoclusters constitute \u201cbaryonic dark matter\u201d. Non-baryonic dark matter like WIMPS and AXIONS are not ruled out, although they have not been found after thirty years of experiments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quintessential Water and Dark Energy<\/strong> Cosmic water nanoclusters can capture the virtual photons of zero-point-energy vacuum fluctuations above the cluster cut-off frequency, \"\"Only vacuum fluctuations below 1.7 THz are gravitationally active, leading to a common origin of dark matter and dark energy of the correct magnitudes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Cyclic Universe versus the Inflationary Multiverse<\/strong>
Dr. Johnson\u2019s paper suggests a single \u201ccyclic\u201d<\/em> Universe cosmology instead of the popular \u201cmultiverse\u201d derived from inflationary cosmology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quintessence and Astrobiology<\/strong>
The quantum chemistry of water nanoclusters interacting with prebiotic organic molecules, amino acids, and RNA protocells reveals that life should be plentiful throughout the Universe wherever water is present.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Key Frequency for Life<\/strong>
Dr. Johnson finds that the water-nanocluster vibrations key to coupling with prebiotic molecules correspond to the \"\"dark energy density value. He concludes that we are living at the ideal time in the expanding universe for life to exist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Anthropic Principle<\/strong>
From the quantum astrochemistry of quintessential cosmic water nanoclusters interacting with prebiotic organic molecules, amino acids and RNA protocells on early Earth and habitable exoplanets, Dr. Johnson\u2019s scenario is consistent with the anthropic principle<\/em> that our universe is a biosystem and has those properties which allow life – as we know it, based on water – to develop at the present stage of its history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLife Imitates Art\u201d<\/strong>
Professor Johnson points out the idea that cosmic water nanoclusters may be a form of dark matter was a major plot element in a science-fiction feature film, \u201cBreaking Symmetry\u201d<\/em> he wrote, produced, and directed at MIT twenty years ago. The principal character in the film is a young female astrophysicist studying dark matter. The movie can be seen on: Youtube.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Article: \u201cCosmology, Astrobiology, and the RNA World: Just Add Quintessential Water\u201d <\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Author: Keith Johnson, MIT<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Published in International Journal of Astrobiology<\/em>, January 2021 and available to read for free until March 1 2021<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new paper from MIT by Dr. Keith Johnson in the International Journal of Astrobiology (Cambridge University Press) connects dark matter, dark energy, life, and the Fifth Element.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":825,"featured_media":39779,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3462,2254,9,1444],"tags":[596,8381,598,4689],"coauthors":[8366],"class_list":["post-39755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-astronomy","category-physics","category-science-technology","category-space-and-planetary-science","tag-astrobiology","tag-dark-matter","tag-ija","tag-international-journal-of-astrobiology"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/825"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39755"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39755\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39800,"href":"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39755\/revisions\/39800"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39755"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=39755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}