At www.scientificamerican.com/article/do-we-live-in-a-lopsided-universe/ … which is another take on the possibility the unverse is not the same in every direction. Recent findings say clusters of galaxies are not the same distance away from each other because some of them are expanding faster than others. The so called qualification for this observation is that some of them are dimmer than others – and must therefore be further into the distance. They propose the universe is anisotropic rather than isotropic. Could it be luminosities of galaxies have nothing to do with distance?
We are later informed an anisotropic universe would shake the pillars of physics which would demand major revisions to cosmology. If the universe differs in different directions it would raise a question mark about homogeneity of the expansion rate – 'and would be astonishing and depressing.' Oh dear. The author is getting emotional. Somebody's mind cannot cope with new facts that contradict what they were taught as a student. No wonder it's so hard for new ideas to get any leverage. It's exciting, surely, rather than depressing. However, what is depressing is that we are then told, 'to explain such a thing … cosmologists would turn to dark energy, a mysterious force showing an accelaration of the growth of the universe …' in a previous response to an objectionable scientific finding. Expect a rebuttal paper any time soon – possibly in Nature in order to give it a bit of authority. Dark energy is the jam that glues mainstream consensus theories together. Luckily, it ain't super glue.