The Science of Monsters

Allen Lipke: “That’s exactly the question! We don’t know. Dark matter is a particle, we think. We think it’s a particle because it interacts with regular matter on a gravitational basis and so our galaxies are spinning faster than we expect them to spin given the amount of matter that we can see. Again, this goes back to the 1930s.”

Kelly:“So, scientists were thinking about this already back then?”

Allen Lipke: Fritz Zwicky and Jan Oort were two theoretical physicists that threw out this theory but no one would give them any money to do research until probably 1985. The scientific community finally decided there is something out there and we don’t really know what it is. Finally, they were able to get some money and do some experiments and research to prove what it is. That’s why we’re still sitting at a theoretical level.

Kelly:“It’s still fairly new!”

Allen Lipke: “We haven’t really been working on it long, maybe twenty years. There’s a variety of experiments going on around the world now. Some of them are quite similar to each other. The one we did and the one in Ontario are the only ones like that. There’s a lot of empirical, theoretical kind of evidence. For example, we can see the bending of light coming from outer space from other galaxies.”

Meg:“What’s bending it?”

Allen Lipke: “We don’t see what’s there to bend it. The Hubble telescope was designed to look at stars but it’s stumbled across all kinds of things like that. There are a lot of theories out there. I just read one not so long ago saying the answer to the dark matter question is quasars. They create a lot of gravitational pull. We need those theories.”

Kelly:“What are some other theories you’re interested in?”

Allen Lipke: “Parallel universes. We don’t really know if we’re the only universe out there or if there’s another universe adjacent to us. It’s kind of scary!”

Kelly:“It’s fascinating!”

Parallel universes or alternate dimensions have been explored in such movies as Silent Hill (2006), In the Mouth of Madness (1995), and The Mist (2007) as well as the TV shows Stranger Things (2016–present) and Star Trek (1966–1969). There are even theories about alternate timelines and time travel that have become popular in recent years. One thing we know for certain? There is a lot of space left to explore and scientific and technological advances will only make space travel more possible.

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SECTION NINE

WITCHES

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CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

THE WITCH

Year of Release: 2015

Director: Robert Eggers

Writer: Robert Eggers

Starring: Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson

Budget: $4 million

Box Office: $40.4 million

The Witch (2015), set in 1630s New England, follows a family who are banished from their town over a religious dispute. One of the earliest records of a witch dates back to the Bible. The book of 1 Samuel, thought to be written between 931 BCE and 721 BCE, tells the story of King Saul looking for the Witch of Endor to summon the dead prophet Samuel’s spirit to help him defeat the Philistine army. The witch raises Samuel, who then prophesies the death of Saul and his sons. The next day Saul’s sons die in battle and Saul dies by suicide. Other Old Testament verses condemn witches, such as Exodus 22:18, which says, “thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.” Additional Biblical passages caution against divination, chanting, or using witches to contact the dead.

Are “witch doctors” considered witches? The term witch doctor, a practitioner meant to protect and heal others from ailments presumed to be caused by witches, first came into use in 1718. The term later came to be used to describe African shamans in the 1800s and is sometimes still used to describe those who use non-traditional medicine in healing. The type of healing can include spiritual, natural remedies, and other holistic approaches to the human body and mind.