Physics & Math / Dark Matter

Discover Interview: Miles of Wire, Reams of Print-Outs, and a Giant Discovery

Jocelyn Bell Burnell worked through old-school equipment and old-school sexism to find the first pulsar—the beginning of an extraordinary life in science. 12.29.2009

Big Picture: 8 Ways Scientists Look at—But Don't Yet See—Dark Matter

Scientists hunt for the unseen matter that glues together the cosmos. But some wonder whether it even exists. 06.22.2009

The Father of Dark Matter Still Gets No Respect

Little-acknowledged Fritz Zwicky got there first on dark matter, neutron stars, and supernovas. 12.31.2008

#2: The LHC Begins Its Search for the "God Particle"

After many years and billions of dollars, the LHC had its fateful first test run. 12.22.2008

20 Best Brains Under 40

Young innovators are changing everything from theoretical mathematics to cancer therapy. 11.20.2008

Science's Alternative to an Intelligent Creator: the Multiverse Theory

Our universe is perfectly tailored for life. That may be the work of God or the result of our universe being one of many. 11.10.2008

Gravity Is So Last Year

A new book seeks to reinvent Einstein's greatest gift to the world. 10.24.2008

What Happens When a Galaxy Eats Its Neighbor?

New images show that two rivers of stars—and possibly dark matter—are all that remain of one dwarf galaxy. 09.14.2008

Nevermind The Black Hole Hoopla: Here's How the LHC Could Blow Up the World (of Physics)

The collider might find extra dimensions, dark matter, some unknown unknown, and—just maybe—nothing at all. 09.10.2008

An Essential, Concise History of the LHC, 2002–2008

DISCOVER's been all over the Large Hadron Collider since it was just a big hole in the ground. 09.10.2008

The Most Baffling Scientific Mysteries of Our Time

A new book explores what we still don't know about science. 08.20.2008

Nothingness of Space Could Illuminate the Theory of Everything

Could the vacuum contain dark energy, gravity particles, and frictionless gears? 07.18.2008

Movie Camera to the Stars

The Earth's fastest telescope aims to make the best sky map ever created. 05.13.2008

Battleground Galactica

New tools and techniques reveal space oddities that eclipse everything we've seen. 05.07.2008

Has the Einstein Revolution Gone Too Far?

Einstein ended science's devotion to experience; it may now be time to come back. 04.01.2008

3 Theories That Might Blow Up the Big Bang

Time may not have a beginning—and it might not exist at all. 03.25.2008

Einstein Didn't Grok His Own Revolution

He thought black holes and quantum mechanics were too weird to be true. 03.10.2008

Could the Next Einstein Be a Surfer Dude?

Six iconoclasts who could revolutionize physics—again. 02.26.2008

A (Dark) Matter of Time

Physicists get creative in their search for dark matter particles 12.12.2007

7. Dark Matters

Astronomers unveil a new map of the mysterious invisible stuff that makes up 90 percent of the universe. 12.12.2007

The Man Who Imagined Wormholes and Schooled Hawking

Kip Thorne revolutionized physics, fixed up Contact, and straddled the Cold War divide. 11.09.2007

Interview: Janna Levin

The physicist talks about her work on the creation of the universe, her award-winning fiction, and being on The Colbert Report. 07.17.2007

Mining for Dark Matter

Seeking the universe’s missing ingredient inside a Minnesota mountain 05.15.2007

The Birth of Dark Energy

A dark force that is pulling the cosmos apart 04.16.2007

Dark Matter Made Visible

There's far more to the universe than meets the eye. 11.13.2006

The Einstein Dilemma

Mordehai Milgrom's new physics could overthrow Newton and Einstein--and tear up our whole picture of how the universe is put together. 08.01.2006

Those Dark Questions

A maverick who unmasked Sherlock Holmes and calculated the time of Jesus' crucifixion is stirring things up again. 05.28.2006

Sky Lights

Missing: Half a universe. Last seen: 13.7 billion years ago 10.24.2005

Sky Lights

Most of the cosmos cannot be seen, but its influence is visible everywhere you look 10.01.2004

Nailing Down Gravity

New ideas about the most mysterious power in the universe 10.01.2003

Very Dark Energy

Why is the universe expanding faster and faster? The answer may be a form of energy we almost can't imagine 03.01.2001

Works in Progress

Astronomers close in on a dark secret of the cosmos 08.01.2000

Mapping Dark Matter

06.01.1997

The Antimatter Mission

A few curious physicists think it's time to find some antimatter stars in antimatter galaxies. 04.01.1996

The Sound Laser

Lasers amplify light, masers amplify microwaves, and now, from France, comes the saser: a supercool glass rod that amplifies sound. 07.01.1994

Particle Hunters

Dark is unseeable almost by definition, but that doesn't stop two physicists from setting sophisticated traps to pin the ghostly stuff down. The catch is, they're stalking different particles. 12.01.1992