Archive

Illustration of ducks and decoys on a river

04/07/20

Dark matter decoys

The ADMX experiment trains scientists to deal with real signals—by creating fake ones.

02/11/20

What we know about dark matter

Although scientists have yet to find the spooky stuff, they aren’t completely in the dark.

01/21/20

The other dark matter candidate

As technology improves, scientists discover new ways to search for theorized dark matter particles called axions.

01/07/20

Vera Rubin, giant of astronomy

The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope will be named for an influential astronomer who left the field better than she found it.

Photograph of Jonathan LeyVa, wearing purple gloves, working on a piece of equipment

09/30/19

A day in the life of a cosmic-ray ‘bookkeeper’

Early-career physicist Jonathan LeyVa is helping to build one of the world’s most sensitive dark matter detectors.

08/13/19

Testing DAMA

An Italian experiment has a 20-year signal of what could be dark matter—and scientists are embarking on their most promising efforts yet to confirm or refute its results.

07/18/19

A day in the life of a dark matter data wrangler

Maria Elena Monzani prepares an international team to search for clues to one of the biggest scientific mysteries.

Photograph of hands in light blue rubber gloves holding detector components

06/10/19

Berkeley leans into search for light dark matter

Dark matter could be much lower in mass and slighter in energy than previously thought.

illustration representing gravitational waves

04/18/19

What gravitational waves can say about dark matter

Scientists think that, under some circumstances, dark matter could generate powerful enough gravitational waves for equipment like LIGO to detect.

An illustration depicting experimental theorists

04/09/19

All hands on deck

Some theorists have taken to designing their own experiments to broaden the search for dark matter.

03/05/19

A tiny new experiment at the LHC

The story of the latest experiment approved for installation at the Large Hadron Collider starts with a theorist and a question about dark matter.

Photo of a scientist holding up a detector component

10/16/18

Looking for dark matter using quantum technology

Fermilab scientists are harnessing quantum technology in the search for dark matter.

Photo of the index finger and thumb of someone wearing blue gloves next to a cube small enough to fit on a fingertip

09/20/18

Dark matter vibes

SuperCDMS physicists are testing a way to amp up dark matter vibrations to help them search for lighter particles.

Photo of one of the experiment's detector crystals within its protective copper housing

05/07/18

Construction begins on SuperCDMS SNOLAB

The SuperCDMS SNOLAB project is expanding the hunt for dark matter to particles with properties not accessible to any other experiment.

Photo of equipment and panels for the ADMX experiment fill the room: an ADMX experiment banner hangs above

04/09/18

ADMX brings new excitement to dark matter search

Scientists on the Axion Dark Matter Experiment have demonstrated technology that could lead to the discovery of theoretical light dark matter particles called axions.

Illustration of Higgs dirigible entering “dark sector”

01/16/18

Voyage into the dark sector

A hidden world of particles awaits.