PRESS COVERAGE

"Light in the Dark"
by: Tom Siegfried - December 27, 2012
Scientists may be on the brink of identifying a mysterious form of matter. For decades, astronomers have grappled with their inability to decipher the universe's darkest secret: the identity of most of its matter.

"DNA May Help Scientists Find 'Dark Matter,' the Glue that Binds Galaxies"
by: Brian Vastag - December 3, 2012
That wonder molecule of life on Earth, DNA, is now being enlisted in the search for an exotic species zooming through the cosmos: dark matter.

"Hunting Dark Matter with DNA"
by: Tanya Lewis - October 31, 2012
Physicists racing to detect the mysterious substance known as dark matter are thinking outside the box by looking inside the cell. A new proposal for tracking dark matter particles relies on strands of DNA. All the ordinary stuff in the universe, from the atoms in people to the hot plasma in stars, makes up only about 5 percent of the universe’s mass and energy.

"Dark Matter Hits the Average Human Once a Minute?"
by: Jason Major - April 24, 2012
But WIMPs of certain masses can collide with atomic nuclei on occasion—and now it appears such collisions might happen more often than previously thought. "Before we did this work, I thought a WIMP collided with one of your nuclei once in your lifetime," said Katherine Freese, a professor with the Michigan Center for Theoretical Physics at the University of Michigan. "Turns out it's more likely to be one a minute."

"Dark Matter May Collide With Atoms Inside You More Often Than Thought,"
by: Charles Q. Choi - April 27, 2012
"Before we did these calculations, I had been under the impression that on the average, one WIMP would hit one of the nuclei in a human body in about 100 years. In fact I used to joke about the 'WIMP death theory,'" said researcher Katherine Freese, a theoretical physicist at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. "Instead, it turns out that the number of WIMP interactions would be so much more frequent — as many as one per minute."

"A New Piece to the Dark Matter Puzzle,"
by: Katherine Freese - May 6, 2011
For twenty five years I’ve been working on the “dark matter problem”—the question of what makes up roughly 90% of the mass of our Milky Way galaxy as well as every other galaxy. This past week saw intriguing new experimental results that may be telling us something profound about this question.

"Heart of Darkness Could Explain Sun Mysteries,"
by: Eugenie Samuel Reich - July 17, 2010
Is dark matter lurking at the centre of our bright sun? Yes, say two research groups who believe the elusive stuff is cooling the solar core.

"Shedding LIGHT on DARK STARS,"
page 26, by: Ker Than - March, 2010
Bizarre stars powered by dark matter may have been the first to form after the Big Bang.

(Click here to download the publication as an Adobe PDF file)

"Dark Side of Black Holes: Dark Matter Could Explain the Early Universe's Giant Black Holes,"
by: Charles Q. Choi - March, 2010
Massive black holes should not have existed in a universe less than one billion years old, yet they did.

(Click here to download the publication as an Adobe PDF file)

"Etoiles noires: Elles seraient les premiers astres,"
page 92, par: Mathieu Grousson - Mars, 2010
Faute de pouvoir être observées directement, les étoiles primitives demeurent une énigme pour les scientifiques. Aussi, le scenario de leur formation repose-t-il sur celui des étoiles connues, où la mystérieuse matière noire tient un faible role. Or, voilà qu’une astrophysicienne américaine émet une hypothèse audacieuse: la matière noire serait au coeur même de l’extraordinaire rayonnement de ces premiers astres titanesques.

(Click here to download the publication as an Adobe PDF file)

"Burrowing Black Holes Devoured First Stars From Within,"
by: David Shiga - December 19, 2008
Some physicists speculate that minuscule black holes may have been forged in the very dense soup of matter and radiation that prevailed in the first moments of the universe's existence. If so, these might account for at least some of the invisible dark matter that pervades the universe.

"First stars 'may have been dark,"
by: Roland Pease, BBC Radio Science Unit - February 19, 2008
According to US scientists, the first stars to appear in the Universe may have been powered by dark matter.

"Twinkle, Twinkle: Dark Matter may have lit up first stars,"
page 4, by: Sarah C. Williams - January 5, 2008
The earliest stars in the universe might have been beasts of a different nature than modern stars, a new model suggests. While nuclear reactions between ordinary chemical elements fuel the fire of stars like Earth's own sun, mysterious dark matter might have powered the first stars.

"First stars might have been powered by dark matter,"
by: Maranda Marquit - February 12, 2008
For a long time, scientists have assumed that the very first stars were powered by fusion, in processes similar to what goes on in present day stars. But a new theory is emerging to challenge that view.

"Theory Posits Early Stars Powered By Dark Matter,"
- February 19, 2008
A BBC article highlights a theory that the first stars may have been powered by dark matter.

"Enlightened: dark matter spotted after cosmic crash,"
by: Eric Jaffe - August 26, 2006
An intergalactic collision is providing astronomers with a giant payoff: the first direct evidence of the invisible material that theorists say holds galaxies together and accounts for most of the universe's mass. For some 70 years, cosmologists have agreed that theories of gravity account for observations in Earth's solar system but fail on a larger scale. For example, if those theories held throughout the universe, objects on the outskirts of the Milky Way would rotate more slowly than those toward the center. But they don't.

Other Press Coverage:

1. New Scientist, March 2005, "Thirteen Things that do not make sense," article written by Michael Brooks
2. New Scientist, February 2005, "The Future of the Universe," article written by Stephen Battersby
3. BBC program on National Public Radio, March 2004, "Dark Matter," (http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/programmes/sci act.shtml), interview with Roland Pease
4. BBC online, March 2004, "Earth on the 'Wimp Highway'," http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3573041.stm, article written by Roland Pease
5. New York Times, February 2000, "In the Dark Matter Wars, WIMPs beat MACHOs," article written by James Glanz, cover of Science Times including photograph
6. Dallas Morning News, February 2004, "If Seeking Dark Matter, Beware Spherical Cows," article written by Tom Siegfried
7. Nature, News and Views, May 2004, "Life Can go on Forever," article written by Phillip Ball
8. New York Times, November 2003, "What is Gravity, Really? (25 top Scientific Questions for the Coming Decade)," article by Dennis Overbye
9. New Scientist, August 2002, "Will Life Last Forever?," Cover article for the August edition, written by Phillip Ball
10. Dallas News, January 2002, "Cardassian Math adds Dimension to the Universe," article written by Tom Siegfried
11. New York Times, February 2002,"Germans’ Claim on Dark Matter is Greeted with Skepticism," article written by James Glanz
12. New Scientist, July 2002, "Stargazer takes on Grand Theory," article written by Eugenie Samuel
13. Boston Globe, March 2001, "Dark Matter," article written by Gareth Cooke
14. New York Times, Feb. 2000, "Experiments at Stanford Shake Dark Matter Claim," article written by James Glanz
15. The Associated Press, March 2000, "Scientists Begin to Shed Light on Dark Matter," article written by Matthew Fordahl
16. Space.com, April 2000, "Feeling Around for Dark Matter"
17. Yahoo News, April 2000, "Shedding Light on Dark Matter"
18. Scientific American, May 2000, "What’s the Matter?, " article written by George Musser
19. Cosmiverse.com, April 2000, "Lighting up Dark Matter"
20. Dallas Morning News, July 5, 1999, "Stretching your Brane: Hidden Space Dimensions may permit Parallel Universes, Explain Cosmic Mysteries," article written by Tom Siegfried
21. Dallas Morning News, February 22, 1999, "Mirror, mirror out in space may solve MACHO mystery," article written by Tom Siegfried
22. Scientific American, 1999, article on “Dark Matter"