A small group of physicists are battling what they see as the cosmological equivalent to the bogeyman: an enormous dark force, that nobody has ever seen, driving galaxies apart. Conventional wisdom holds that the mysterious force, called "dark energy," may make up 70 percent of the universe, and could be the determining factor in whether it is eventually destroyed billions of years from now. But Italian and American cosmologists are offering a controversial alternative to explain the accelerating expansion of the universe. They say it's not dark energy, but an overlooked after-effect of the "Big Bang" -- which cosmologists believe gave birth to the universe. "No mysterious dark energy is required," said Antonio Riotto at Italy's National Nuclear Physics Institute in Padova. "If dark energy were the size that theories predict ... it would have prevented the existence of everything we know in our cosmos," he told Reuters.

Since the late 1990s, scientists have used dark energy to explain an apparent anti-gravity force pushing galaxies away from each other at an accelerating rate, and using a variety of theories -- like new dimensions -- to justify its existence. Albert Einstein once proposed a similar "cosmological constant," entering an anti-gravity factor into his general theory of relativity to offset gravity and create a balanced, static universe. When he later discovered that the universe was expanding, he called the cosmological constant his "greatest blunder," but dark energy revived the idea of an anti-gravity force.

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what do we know? how can we even grasp such a concept when much of our own galaxy remains a mystery? how come solar systems dont bash into eachother? what keeps us away from the black hole in the centre of our galaxy? what role does conciousness play in the cosmos?
why dont we just accept the fact that we dont know and move onto something more practicle, relevant and worth the time of scientific thought, in the long run we will figure it out, but not if we dont solve the pressing issues which will directly affect us in the near future, like global warming, hunger and the looming energy crisis.

All them other things are being solved by enough people already. Its not that we need more scientists to work on global warming or hunger. its the government and the public.

I see cries of 'its hell' or 'it's satan' on the horizon....

There will always be debate over things we know so little about, everyone has their own opinion and theory on it and they wish to prove theirs is right. It will be many many years before we trully have any answers!