Photo of scientist Dan McKinsey from the chest up with text that reads "ask symmetry"

Artwork by Sandbox Studio, Chicago

How is the Force like dark matter?

10/31/17

For Dark Matter Day, scientist and Star Wars fan Dan McKinsey talks dark matter and the Force.

Scientist Dan McKinsey of Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley shares some thoughts on dark matter.

McKinsey recently answered questions about dark matter on Reddit Science.

popular on symmetry

07/28/16

The deconstructed Standard Model equation

The Standard Model is far more than elementary particles arranged in a table.

Illustration of someone reading a physics vocabulary booklet

04/18/24

Physics vocabulary: AI edition

Don’t know your convolutional neural networks from your boosted decision trees? Symmetry is here to help.

$Conceptual illustration of wool being spun into refracted light$

04/17/24

Symmetry’s guide to AI in particle physics and astrophysics

In the coming weeks, Symmetry will explore the ways scientists are using artificial intelligence to advance particle physics and astrophysics—in a series of articles written and illustrated entirely by humans.

Illustration representing properties of light

06/29/21

What is a photon?

The fundamental particle of light is both ordinary and full of surprises.

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.

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.

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.

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