By Richard Panek

Synopsis: The epic, behind-the-scenes story of an astounding gap in our scientific knowledge of the cosmos.

In the past few years, a handful of scientists have been in a race to explain a disturbing aspect of our universe: only 4 percent of it consists of the matter that makes up you, me, our books, and every planet, star, and galaxy. The rest—96 percent of the universe—is completely unknown.

Richard Panek tells the dramatic story of how scientists reached this conclusion, and what they’re doing to find this “dark” matter and an even more bizarre substance called dark energy. Based on in-depth, on-site reporting and hundreds of interviews—with everyone from Berkeley’s feisty Saul Perlmutter and Johns Hopkins’s meticulous Adam Riess to the quietly revolutionary Vera Rubin—the book offers an intimate portrait of the bitter rivalries and fruitful collaborations, the eureka moments and blind alleys, that have fueled their search, redefined science, and reinvented the universe.

Published: January 2011 | ISBN-13: 978-0618982448

Mini-bio: Richard Panek is the recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the New York Foundation for the Arts, as well as a grant from the Antarctic Artists and Writers program of the National Science Foundation. – From Barnard University’s Profile

Author’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/r_panek

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