The 4% Universe: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Race to Discover the Rest of Reality

The epic, behind-the-scenes story of an astounding gap in our scientific knowledge of the cosmos.

In the past few years, a handful of scientists have been in a race to explain a disturbing aspect of our universe: only 4 percent of it consists of the matter that makes up you, me, our books, and every planet, star, and galaxy. The rest-96 percent of the universe-is completely unknown.

Richard Panek tells the dramatic story of how scientists reached this conclusion, and what they're doing to fin...