Richard Panek

The problem with a book on dark matter and dark energy is that there really isn't enough known about them to fill a book that would be of interest to an average reader. So, most of the book is filled with biographies of the researchers who helped collect the data the points toward the existence of dark matter and dark energy. There's a lot of clashing personalities and politics, with debates about who is claiming too much credit and who isn't getting the credit they deserve. Some of the biggest questions I had about dark matter are never addressed in the book. (For instance, if dark matter is the predominant form of mass in the universe, why does it seem that our solar system is so unaffected by it on a local scale? We can land probes on Titan without having to adjust for dark matter's influence.) Not a bad book, just not the book I thought I was buying.… (more)