Jamesian Philosophy Refreshed

  There are fully-formed galaxies very very far away -- more of them than there 'ought' to be according to the Big Bang theory of cosmology as it has developed over the last century or so. When we look at far distances we are of course looking backward in time given the fixed nature of the speed of light. At the very great distances that the JWST can reach we ought to be looking at the early universe, before there had been time for a lot of galaxy formation. It appears that something about the theory will have to be re-worked.  Below there is a link to a story about new developments in astronomy/cosmology: https://www.vox.com/science/24040534/jwst-galaxies-big-bright-mystery-black-holes-cosmology But what I really want to talk about today is that the article in question is a very bad piece of writing. The author, Brian Resnick, takes forever to get around to the point.  Since Resnick buries it here, I just give you in the first graf what should have been his lede: There a...

  So far the Webb telescope, launched with such hoopla back on Christmas Day last year, has been creating mostly confusion.  It started producing images this summer. The first full-color images were released on July 12.  Then there came a flurry of stories about how the new images create difficulties for the Big Bang Theory.   Not the dearly departed television show, but the actual theory.  Then the counter-wave of stories: that was a misunderstanding. And then still another wave: the instrument isn't really calibrated properly, so firm conclusions cannot be drawn. So call us when you've recalibrated and gotten it right, okay?