From Rev
While the potential confirmation of gravitational waves and inflation (22 March, p 8) is understandably exciting, I had hoped New Scientist would give a sober assessment of the observations and their interpretation. Instead, you have chosen to sensationalise it by talking it up as a confirmation of the multiverse.
As a church minister with a background in astrophysics, I frequently find myself having to defend both the idea of a multi-billion-year-old universe and the integrity of the scientific process. I argue that scientific results are subject to rigorous scrutiny, not spin and hype. You will therefore understand why I find New Scientist‘s treatment disappointing.
Not long ago, great excitement was generated by neutrinos seeming to travel faster than light – until a calibration error was discovered and the result was retracted. The difficulty of extracting the gravitational wave signal from the cosmic microwave background data suggests that a retraction could also happen here.
Wichenford, Worcestershire, UK
. Dr Rich Tweedy
