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The Elephant in the Universe: Our Hundred-Year Search for Dark Matter
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About This Book
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. When you train a telescope on outer space, you can see luminous galaxies, nebulae, stars, and planets. But if you add all that together, it constitutes only 15 percent of the matter in the universe. Despite decades of research, the nature of the remaining 85 percent is unknown. We call it dark matter. In The Elephant in the Universe , Govert Schilling explores the fascinating history of the search for dark matter. Evidence for its existence comes from a wealth of astronomical observations. Theories and computer simulations of the evolution of the universe are also they can be reconciled with astronomical measurements only if dark matter is a dominant component of nature. Physicists have devised huge, sensitive instruments to search for dark matter, which may be unlike anything else in the cosmos―some unknown elementary particle. Yet so far dark matter has escaped every experiment. Indeed, dark matter is so elusive that some scientists are beginning to suspect there might be something wrong with our theories about gravity or with the current paradigms of cosmology. Schilling interviews both believers and heretics and paints a colorful picture of the history and current status of dark matter research, with astronomers and physicists alike trying to make sense of theory and observation. Taking a holistic view of dark matter as a problem, an opportunity, and an example of science in action, The Elephant in the Universe is a vivid tale of scientists puzzling their way toward the true nature of the universe.
Reviews
"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."
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