Cosmic inflation appears to have shifted from settled science back to speculation

SelfAwarePatterns

You can get background on what I’m talking about in this post here and here.

Probably the best thing to do is let the experts weigh in on this.

Planck team measurement consistent with our (Flauger et al.) estimates and extrapolations: polarized dust appears to explain BICEP2 results.

— David Spergel (@DavidSpergel) September 22, 2014

Results in from Planck: seems likely that the famous BICEP2 results were dust, not gravitational waves. http://t.co/5FwBqMoDCy

— Sean Carroll (@seanmcarroll) September 22, 2014

Good news for theoretical cosmologists: room is once again open to find compelling alternatives to inflation!

— Sean Carroll (@seanmcarroll) September 22, 2014

Quick comment on #Planck & #BICEP2: "whole signal could be explained by dust" doesn't mean grav waves aren't there. Does mean no discovery.

— Katie Mack (@AstroKatie) September 22, 2014

It’s interesting to note that the empirical evidence from BICEP2 has never been called into question…

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