For over ten years, the dark side of the universe has been headline news. Detailed studies of the rotation of spiral galaxies, and 'mirages' created by clusters of galaxies bending the light from very remote objects, have convinced astronomers of the presence of large quantities of dark (unseen) matter in the cosmos. The most striking fact is that they seem to compromise about 95% of the matter/energy content of the universe. As for ordinary matter, although we are immersed in a sea of dark particles, including primordial neutrinos and photons from fossil cosmological radiation, both we and our environment are made of ordinary, 'baryonic' matter.

For over ten years, the dark side of the universe has been headline news. Detailed studies of the rotation of spiral galaxies, and 'mirages' created by clusters of galaxies bending the light from very remote objects, have convinced astronomers of the presence of large quantities of dark (unseen) matter in the cosmos. The most striking fact is that they seem to compromise about 95% of the matter/energy content of the universe. As for ordinary matter, although we are immersed in a sea of dark particles, including primordial neutrinos and photons from fossil cosmological radiation, both we and our environment are made of ordinary, 'baryonic' matter.