Physicists and Geneticists Team Up to Build a Galactic Dark-Matter Detector out of DNA - Polidicks

[QUOTE]The hunt for dark matter is arguably the biggest scientific search ongoing right now--even as scientists close in on the elusive Higgs boson--but finding it is not proving easy, since physicists can’t see or measure the stuff, or even be sure that it’s there at all (it is, after all, theoretical at this point). To find it, a notable collaboration of astrophysicists and geneticists is gathering to build one of the most far-out particle detectors we’ve come across in recent memory: a dark matter detector made out of DNA. Many physicists agree that based on our best models of the cosmos dark energy must be all around us, exerting itself on galaxies and galaxy clusters and even enveloping the Earth as it makes its way around the Sun (which is slowly making its way toward the constellation Cygnus as it rotates around the galactic center). If that’s the case, then Earth should be facing into a headwind of dark matter in front of it and leaving a tailwind of dark matter in its wake, so as the Earth rotates throughout the day the dark matter signal should vary. So a team including University of Michigan astrophysicist Katherine Freese and Harvard’s George Church, a noted geneticist famous for his work in genome sequencing and the like, are collaborating on a new kind of directional detector that aims to capture the shifting direction of dark matter particles using DNA. The detector would work by hanging multiple strands of single-strand DNA from a thin gold sheet, creating a “forest” of dangling DNA strands directly beneath a canopy of gold sheet. When dark matter particles strike the heavy gold nuclei in the canopy, those nuclei are knocked loose and sent smashing through the DNA forest below, severing the DNA strands and carving a path through the “forest.” The severed strands fall to a collecting plate below; since the location and sequence of each strand is recorded beforehand, a quick analysis of which strands have been severed can provide a picture of how the gold nuclei moved through the forest, and in turn how each nucleus was struck by the dark matter particle. In other words, such a detector would show both the presence of dark matter and its incoming direction. Moreover, unlike many of the dark matter detectors trying to find the stuff today, this sensor array doesn’t have to be super-cooled, nor does it have to be very big--a one-meter-square array could probably do the trick. But there are also a lot of problems inherent in building a one-square-meter array of dangling single-strand DNA and a functional method for collecting and analyzing the severed strands. It won’t be easy, but there just might be a Nobel Prize on the other side if Church, Freese, and company can figure it out.[/quote] Source: [url]http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2012-07/finally-detect-dark-matter-physicists-and-geneticists-team-build-detector-out-dna[/url]

All them science words sounds scary.

A DNA Galactic Dark Matter Detector. I can't decide whether that sounds really cheesy or fucking awesome. Leaning towards the latter.

That's definitely a way of doing it that I'd have never thought of

Stuff like this makes me regret not deciding to do any sciences for A level.

[QUOTE=Bean Shoot;36620301]A DNA Galactic Dark Matter Detector. I can't decide whether that sounds really cheesy or fucking awesome. Leaning towards the latter.[/QUOTE] They should shorten the name, like "Did you remember to bring the DNAGDMD?" "Yes, I remembered to bring the DNAGDMD."

[QUOTE=SgtTupelo;36624074]They should shorten the name, like "Did you remember to bring the DNAGDMD?" "Yes, I remembered to bring the DNAGDMD."[/QUOTE] "The DMAGNDMD?" "No, no, the DAGNMDGNDNM."

this might be biased since i do nanotechnology research but this article does not explain why this need to be a specially engineered DNA when VAMWCNNT (look it up im not typing out that abbrivation) technology is readily available.

[QUOTE=I Am A Rock;36627826]this might be biased since i do nanotechnology research but this article does not explain why this need to be a specially engineered DNA when VAMWCNNT (look it up im not typing out that abbrivation) technology is readily available.[/QUOTE] "The VANWCNNT?" "No, no, the VAWNCANNTN."

but what if some other particle hits the gold instead I'd imagine there's a lot of different particles out there

This doesn't seem very effective. Couldn't any particles collide gold nuclei? The problem is that no one has any idea what the fuck dark matter is, so you can never be sure that you have actually found it or not with this method. When you are holding a hammer, everything will look like nails. Also, dark matter might not even be matter at all, the name is simply a place holder for a phenomenon that we can't quite explain yet. For all we know, dark matter just means that gravity works differently than we previously thought. [editline]5th July 2012[/editline] Also, I thought our solar system was devoid of dark matter. Gravity works fine in the solar system, it just doesn't seem to work that well in the galaxy or universe.

[QUOTE=yawmwen;36627916]This doesn't seem very effective. Couldn't any particles collide gold nuclei? The problem is that no one has any idea what the fuck dark matter is, so you can never be sure that you have actually found it or not with this method. When you are holding a hammer, everything will look like nails. Also, dark matter might not even be matter at all, the name is simply a place holder for a phenomenon that we can't quite explain yet. For all we know, dark matter just means that gravity works differently than we previously thought. [editline]5th July 2012[/editline] Also, I thought our solar system was devoid of dark matter. Gravity works fine in the solar system, it just doesn't seem to work that well in the galaxy or universe.[/QUOTE] I would think this apperatus would most likely be used in a vacuum since if its not super cooled and you consider the energy of room temperature air using a boltzman distribution you could argue that there could be enough to alter the experiment. In a solar system gravity works fine because the distance between bodies is relatively small in comparision to intergallatic scales. basically the farther apart two bodies are the more noticable the effect is. depending on what theory you subscribe to on gravity, the gravitional force has an associated carrier particle (as is with the other forces). when physicist use the word particle it can be rather ambiguos and usually the people that write the article fuck up science bits a lot.