The mysterious `dark energy needed to explain the current observations, poses a serious confrontation between fundamental physics and cosmology. The present crisis may be an outcome of the (so far untested) prediction of the general theory of relativ
ity that the pressure of the matter source also gravitates. In this view, a theoretical analysis reveals some surprising inconsistencies and paradoxes faced by the energy-stress tensor (in the presence of pressure) which is used to model the matter content of the universe, including dark energy.
