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Scientists looking to capture evidence of dark matter -- the invisible substance thought to constitute much of the universe -- may find a helpful tool in the recent work of researchers from Princeton University and New York University.

By Ron Cowen of Nature magazine Physicists last week announced evidence that particles of dark matter--the invisible, hypothetical material believed to make up more than 80 percent of the mass of the Universe--may have a lower mass than suspected.

By Ron Cowen of Nature magazine Physicists last week announced evidence that particles of dark matter--the invisible, hypothetical material believed to make up more than 80 percent of the mass of the Universe--may have a lower mass than suspected. [More]

(PhysOrg.com) -- X-rays have been used for more than a century to expose the invisible in many of its forms. When a family doctor studies an X-ray of a broken leg or an agent scans a carry-on bag at an airport security gate, hard X-rays, with their ability to penetrate beyond the surface of a material, reveal hidden objects.

A major dark matter experiment has taken a swipe with its technological net in the hopes of catching some of the elusive particles that make up the universe's missing mass, and once again that net has come up empty. But in swiping and missing, the Xenon100 experiment has closed in a bit tighter on where dark matter--the invisible stuff theorized to outweigh the ordinary matter in the universe by a factor of five--might be hiding. [More]