A Signal, for Now

Ara Balears

Factuality

Ownership

A flash of light. Zap! An instant of energy recorded in a liquid xenon tank, a kilometer and a half underground in South Dakota, on the night of June 16, 2023. Three years later, the team that detected it comes out to tell the world. “We’ve discovered dark matter,” they would say, if it were a work of science fiction. In reality, the researchers have come out to say: “For now, it’s an observation that needs validation.”