Scientists have spent decades trying to explain why most of the matter in the universe seems to be invisible to our telescopes, at all wavelengths of light. If this “dark matter” is real, we only know about it because of its gravitational effects on things we can see.

Perhaps now the solution to the puzzle is clearer. Earlier this month an international team of physicists reported an intriguing piece of evidence from an experiment located in a gold mine in South Dakota, USA.

Dan Tovey is professor of particle physics at the University of Sheffield. He was a member of the team who reported this amazing result. He will speak about his work in dark matter physics, and explain what this new result means for our understanding of the universe.