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Show notes
There’s a flashy new find in the hunt for dark matter—the stuff that makes up 85% of all matter in the universe, but we have no clue what it is. A mile under Lead, South Dakota, is a giant cauldron filled with 7 tons of liquid xenon, encased in water and surrounded by super-sensitive photodetectors. Known as the LZ detector, its job is to look for flashes of light that come from particles bumping into xenon atoms. And during its observations, the researchers saw a very weird flash—a bump that doesn’t look like it came from any particle we know of. Flora talks with physicist Richard Gaitskell about the [https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/dark-matter-lz-detector/?utm\_source=wnyc&utm\_medium=podcast&utm\_campaign=scifri"]( hunt for a dark matter particle and why he’s excited about this weird little finding. Guest: Dr. Richard Jeremy Gaitskell is a physicist at Brown University and a leading scientist in the search for particle dark matter. He is a co-founder of the Large Underground Xenon experiment. _Transcript will be available after the show airs on_ [https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/dark-matter-lz-detector/?utm\_source=wnyc&utm\_medium=podcast&utm\_campaign=scifri"]( _sciencefriday.com._ [https://pod.link/73329284"]( _Subscribe to this podcast._ _Follow our show on_ [https://www.instagram.com/scifri/"]( _Instagram_ _,_ [https://www.tiktok.com/@scifri"]( _TikTok_ _,_ [https://www.facebook.com/scifri"]( _Facebook_ _, and_ [https://bsky.app/profile/scifri.bsky.social"]( _Bluesky_ _@scifri and_ [https://www.sciencefriday.com/newsletters/?utm\_source=wnyc&utm\_medium=podcast&utm\_campaign=scifri"]( _sign up for our newsletters_ _. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us:_ _877-472-4374_ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See [pcm.adswizz.com]( https://pcm.adswizz.com">pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.