So dark matter is our frenemy. We have no clue what it is. It's kind of annoying. But we desperately need it in our calculations to arrive at an accurate description of the universe. Scientists are generally uncomfortable whenever we must base our calculations on concepts we don't understand, but we'll do it if we have to. And dark matter is not our first rodeo.
Usually, we don't think that much about calendars. Sure, we think about our calendars, filled with our dentist appointments and meetings and birthdays, but we don't give a lot of thought into how and why our days our divided up the way they are. The one glaring exception is leap year, the annual ritual every four years where we shove an extra day into February, giving most of us an extra, yet completely normal day of the year.
“I am with [Neil deGrasse Tyson] on this one,” Director of National Intelligence James Clapper typed, in response to Tumblr user BaeForHire, who asked if the Earth was flat. “Definitely a sphere.The Intelligence Community has high confidence. We take pictures of it every day,” Clapper continued, in a tone as breezy as the forum he was in. Participating in Tumblr's Answer Time, Clapper's answers drifted between light-hearted certainty and cagey push-back.
It's one of the most basic scientific facts most people learn as children: the Earth is round. Yet that frequently proven fact of physical reality has become the subject of a strange new multimedia feud between rapper B.o.B and popular astrophysicist and TV show host Neil deGrasse Tyson.
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