Exploring the vast dark universe | Laura Baudis | TEDxCERN

Only a tiny fraction of the matter in our universe is visible; everything else is dark. Dark matter is so shy that we only know it exists because of its ostensible gravitational tugs on celestial bodies. Physicist Laura Baudis from the University of Zurich explains the history of dark matter research and how scientists are hoping to uncover its mysterious properties by trapping, tracking or even creating it by using the world’s best tools.
Laura Baudis is a physicist looking for dark matter deep underground. “The nature of the matter which holds galaxies together is one of the greatest unresolved problems in science,” Baudis said. Dark matter may evade all ordinary sensors and detectors, but even it can’t escape the pull of the most notorious force in the universe—gravity. Gravity allows physicists to map the massive fingerprint left by dark matter all over the cosmos. Baudis a professor at the Physik Institut at the university of Zurich and a specialist in weakly interacting particles, such as neutrinos and dark matter. She is developing an extremely sensitive and subterranean liquid Xeon detector which will catch any particles that wiz through it. If dark matter can interact with ordinary matter as many theorist predict, Baudis’ hopes her new detector will see it.
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