Spot the Frippet: dark matter.

Here's something to keep us all occupied over the summer: can you spot some dark matter?

Probably not, as no one else ever has, but there's probably a Nobel Prize in it for you if you can, so it has to be worth a try.

The scientists say - most of them, anyway - that dark matter accounts for about 85% of all the stuff in the universe, and this dark matter probably consists of some very small unknown particles, quite possibly weakly-interacting massive particles (and if you're wondering why the word massive is in there when they're so small, then look at the acronym. Hilarious, yes? Well, there's particle physicists for you).

The reason the scientists think that the dark matter is there is because, if it isn't, then some of their theories, especially theories about gravity, don't work.

Why don't the galaxies and solar systems spin out of control? Why, it must be all the dark matter.

As I say, you can't see the stuff - but then you can't see the wind, can you, but even if you can't feel it you can still tell it's there.

Anyway, if it's true that 85% of the stuff in the universe is dark matter then presumably some of it is hiding inside you.

Where do you think yours is doing at the moment? Because it occurs to me that that thought could give rise to an excellent novel, if not an actual Nobel.

Spot the Frippet: dark matter. The Old English form of the word dark is deorc and is related to the Old High German terchennen to hide. The word matter comes from the Latin word māteria, which can mean cause or substance, especially a substance which produces something else. It's related to the word māter, mother. 

Lord Kelvin came up with the idea of dark matter in 1884, but the first person to come up with the words dark matter was Henri Poincaré in 1906; though, being French, he called it matière obscure.