An award-winning science journalist details the quest to isolate and understand dark matter―and shows how that search has helped us to understand the universe we inhabit.
Scientists are obstinate creatures, however, especially when faced with unanswered questions...The dogged persistence of physicists and astronomers facing a seemingly insurmountable task is the underlying theme of Mr. Schilling’s latest work, The Elephant in the Universe: Our Hundred-Year Search for Dark Matter...Across 25 chapters, each devoted to a specific observation or experiment seeking clues to dark matter’s existence or composition, Mr. Schilling, who has previously written about the discovery of exoplanets and gravitational waves, presents an impressively comprehensive birds-eye view of a research topic that is both many decades established and yet still at the very cutting edge of astronomy and physics...I would have also liked to have seen more discussion of how a scientific consensus is reached—why exactly so many physicists are so convinced dark matter is real, despite the fact that a smoking-gun particle has yet to be detected...Taking only the astrophysical evidence for dark matter’s existence, which is both compelling and, unfortunately, all we have to go on, it’s quite possible that dark matter will remain undetectable...Yet even if all the experiments come up empty, it won’t make the existing data go away...Putting aside these issues, if you’re after a non-technical overview of why dark matter is so important and what we’ve been doing all this time to try to understand it, The Elephant in the Universe will fit the bill...What it will not and cannot do is provide a thrilling, climactic story arc or even a moderately satisfying conclusion...Dark matter is a fascinating mystery to wrestle with, but it is also deeply frustrating in its uncertainty and the seeming lack of progress toward an answer.
Stars and other visible objects make up about 15% of solid matter in the universe; the other 85% is invisible...Astronomers have known this since 1932, but only recently has the hunt for dark matter taken off...Schilling begins with a disclaimer of sorts: 'Despite decades of speculation, searching, studies, and simulations, dark matter remains one of the biggest enigmas of modern science'...Rather than follow the traditional format by beginning with the history (and easy concepts) and proceeding toward more complex ideas, the author offers a series of interesting chapters, many of which could stand alone...He chronicles his interviews with scientists around the world and often rewinds the clock to earlier discoveries that foreshadow today’s massive but still frustrating efforts...Curious, indefatigable, and a fine writer, Schilling clearly relays the work of astrophysicists, some of whom denigrate the work of colleagues...An entertaining account of a scientific quest that has failed—so far.
Journalist Schilling chronicles the decades-long search for dark matter in this fascinating history...Sophisticated experiments are being conducted to document the existence of dark matter, which Schilling describes as 'one of the biggest enigmas of modern science': though it is believed to hold 'the universe together,' he writes, its 'true nature' remains a mystery...Along the way, Schilling convincingly argues that even without proof of its existence, dark matter has increased people’s understanding of the world—the search for it has led to greater knowledge of galaxies, gravity, and the big bang, among other phenomena...It makes for a solid introduction to an elusive topic.
