An international team of physicists working in the bottom of an old iron mine in Minnesota said Thursday that they might have registered the first faint hints of a ghostly sea of subatomic particles known as dark matter long thought to permeate the cosmos.
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There’s about a 23% chance that this was caused by something other than a detection of dark matter. Mr. Neville is not impressed, and says they are hyping this all out of proportion.
Dark matter in a mine? It’s called coal, ya dummies.
But seriously, that’s pretty damn cool. I didn’t think there would be dark matter here on this planet. I’ve always read about it as this ineffable material that permeated and shaped the distant cosmos and could only be identified by inference based on how the universe managed to arrange itself in strange ways that could not be accounted for without the existence of some other force. It’s rather fascinating to see that they may be able to find it here on our very own planet, and thus understand better the nature of the universe. Pity there’s such a huge margin for error here, but I suppose we’ll find out better in a few months.
I’d be interested to know how they identify dark matter by a faint heat trace in a sensor.
I suppose it may be analogous to the detection of positrons, where an electron looking particle bends the “wrong” way in a magnetic field; presumably dark matter heats things up in a peculiar way, no?
Also, they should check for Nibblonians in that mine.
80 percent positive, only 20 percent negative, I am impressed. Now they require confirmation. When it comes, the arguments will be huge.
Meh. The octopus with the coconut is cooler.
The octopus with the coconut is cuter.
I always thought positrons was the fluid you had to use in the early GM limited slip differentials. 
What pushed it over the top for him? McDonalds’ new Dark Matter Happy Meal? The Dark Matter Parade down Broadway? Or was it the rumored three-minute Super Bowl ad buy?