A New Tool To Detect Dark Matter

One of my favorite subjects–dark matter–now has a new tool in the fight to prove its existence.

The dark matter theory goes that only around five percent of what makes up the universe can presently be detected. The existence of dark matter is inferred from the behavior of faraway galaxies, which move in ways that can only be explained by a gravitational pull caused by more mass than can be seen.

Physicists estimate dark matter represents around 20 percent of the universe, with the other 75 percent made up of dark energy, a repulsive force that is causing the universe to expand at an ever-quickening pace.

The dark matter detector–which is called a scintillating bolometer–is a crystal so pure it can conduct the energy ostensibly generated when a particle of dark matter strikes the nucleus of one of its atoms.

I'm just coming to realize this is all sort of starting to sound like the premise to The Neverending Story. The scintillating bolometer is The Auryn, dark matter is The Nothing, so on and so forth:

Bastian: "Why is it so dark?"
The Childlike Empress: "In the beginning, it is always dark."