dark matter
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The best dark matter map to date raises questions about the universe
Scientists have released the most precise map of dark matter to date, but it only serves to highlight mysteries in the universe.
MIT researchers show quantum entanglement could make atomic clocks more accurate
It could help scientists explore issues such as the effect of gravity on time.
This galaxy without dark matter is bending the rules of space
The complexities of space are pretty mind-boggling, but there are a handful of accepted theories on which scientists base their research. Space is a vacuum, for example, while a light-year is about 5.88 trillion miles. So researchers at Yale University were understandably shocked when they discovered that one long-held theory might not be right. For years, science has assumed galaxies and dark matter go hand in hand. Now, a galaxy has been discovered that's almost completely devoid of it.
Xenon detector finds no dark matter after 20-month study
Despite being buried a mile under the South Dakota surface and isolated in rock and water for 20 months, the Large Underground Xenon (LUX) dark matter sensor failed to detect anything. While this is yet another unsuccessful attempt to observe the mysterious substance that makes up four-fifths of the universe's mass, at least the findings will help the next hunt.
China launches satellite to unlock dark matter's secrets
Dark matter is that pesky, hidden material that keeps foiling scientists' efforts to come up with a grand unified theory of physics. China's space agency has set about to find it with the launch of DAMPE, the Dark Matter Particle Explorer. It successfully made it into a 500 km (300 mile) high geosynchronous orbit aboard a Long March-2D launch vehicle. The DAMPE satellite is essentially a powerful space telescope tuned for the detection of high-energy gamma rays, electrons and cosmic rays. Once ready, it'll peer into corners of space where scientists believe dark matter lurks.
A 3D slice of the universe 10.8 billion years ago
Mapping out the ancient universe is a major astronomical goal, but there's a huge challenge: the galaxies there are so dim, scientists can't make out any of the dark parts. But researchers from the Max Planck Institute and US Berkeley/Berkeley Lab have made a breakthrough that may help. They turned their telescopes on a small, 10.8 billion year old chunk of the universe, measuring the change in light from galaxies caused by hydrogen clouds just in front of them. By observing a number of such galaxies, the astronomers created a map of the cosmic web of gases in front of them, in a similar way that scientists map out the brain using CT scans. Though they covered just a tiny portion of the universe, the scientists think it could help the DESI project, due to come online in 2018. It's goal is nothing less than completely mapping the universe to a distance of 10 billion light years.
Dark Matter pulled from GOG as developer retools ending
Trouble continues to mount for InterWave Studios' side-scrolling survival horror PC game Dark Matter, which has now been pulled from multiple online storefronts following player allegations that the game was released as an incomplete product. Dark Matter players were greeted with an abrupt ending after reaching a specific point during gameplay, offering no resolution to its storyline or any buildup to a conclusion. The game was removed from Steam following a barrage of consumer complaints, and Good Old Games issued refunds to affected players. Good Old Games has since removed Dark Matter from its database entirely, at publisher Iceberg Interactive's request. "We were actually contacted by the publisher about this: They asked us to take it down while the developer renovated the ending," GOG's Head of PR and Marketing Department Trevor Longino told Joystiq. "We had already decided that offering our users their money back if they bought the game before we updated the description to reflect the game more accurately was enough for the moment -- although we were still investigating the matter and seeing if further steps were necessary -- but were happy enough to agree to the publisher's request when they asked us." Dark Matter failed to meet its Kickstarter goal earlier this year, leading developer InterWave Studios to repackage the game as an episodic series. The finished product was not advertised as the first episode of a series, however, spurring complaints over its sudden ending.
Report: New devs at work on Dark Matter following mass dismissal
Though a new ending for the controversial Dark Matter is supposedly in the works, a Gamasutra report claims that the game's development staff has already been laid off. As reported yesterday, players were incensed by the cliffhanger ending seen in Dark Matter. Instead of a satisfactory conclusion, the game simply offers players an abrupt "To be continued ..." despite a notable lack of current plans for a sequel. Complaints about the ending poured in so rapidly that both Steam and Good Old Games opted to give customers refunds for the game. In a message posted to the Dark Matter community on Steam, CEO of publisher Iceberg Interactive Erik Schreuder blames the problematic ending on the failure of the Dark Matter Kickstarter effort. This is crucial, as Gamasutra claims that the fundraiser's collapse not only crippled the game, but also led to the dismissal of the majority of Interwave Studios' staff (including almost all of the developers who worked on Dark Matter). Gamasutra's report claims that a new developer has been handed the task of building a better ending for Dark Matter, but that this unnamed studio includes none of the original development staff. It's currently unknown when (or if) this hypothetically improved finale will appear.
Dark Matter temporarily removed from Steam, GOG offering refunds
Dark Matter is not available on Steam for the apparent time being, following complaints over the game's incomplete story and lack of labeling as an episodic adventure. The game was removed this morning, with a notice going up on its Steam page saying "Currently there is a known issue at the end of the game. The developer is aware of the issue and they are working on a patch as a solution." Meanwhile, GOG.com is offering refunds to those who bought the game before its description was updated on the site. Now GOG's listing indicates Dark Matter is the "first half" of a story, an update that "adequately reflects the game" according to the retailer. Dark clouds circled around Dark Matter over the weekend, when players vented their anger over its "to be continued" ending, accusing developer InterWave Studios of seemingly releasing an unfinished product. Erik Schreuder, CEO of publisher Iceberg Interactive, responded by clarifying that the 2.5D horror platformer is the first episode of a larger overall saga, one that was originally planned as standalone game. InterWave Studios brought Dark Matter as that standalone game to Kickstarter earlier this year, with plans to sell it for $30. The game wasn't funded, and a few months later Iceberg Interactive released the now controversial first episode, also called Dark Matter, for $15. Schreuder said Dark Matter is "exactly as described on Steam," but the store page makes no mention of the game being episodic. Schreuder was forced to concede the ending "may cause confusion and is not satisfactory," and noted a "more conclusive and satisfying ending" is in the works - as perhaps indicated by the new notice on Steam. At the time of writing, the game remains on sale at GOG.com
Dark Matter publisher: Game is meant to be 'episodic series'
Dark Matter recently found itself in a dark space of criticism after a player posted on the game's Steam discussion page about its "To be continued" ending. After a developer from InterWave responded and said the "full story is indeed not complete," they clarified that it is a "complete game in itself." Erik Schreuder, CEO of Dark Matter publisher Iceberg Interactive, has posted a follow up on the game's Steam discussion forum to address accusations that the game is unfinished. The message describes an initial Kickstarter pitch for a game with "significantly more levels" that would have been sold for $30. This plan was discarded once the Kickstarter campaign obtained less than a fifth of its £50,000 fundraising goal. "The idea was then formed to make Dark Matter an episodic series, with episodes selling at a budget price of $14.99," Schreuder said. "The first installment is what has launched recently on Steam and is simply called Dark Matter." Schreuder wrote that the game is "exactly as described on Steam (including that it contains 14 levels)" and explained that the version of Dark Matter players are experiencing is "not the $30 full-priced game, but the episodic budget version." The game's Steam page, as of writing, makes no note of the game being episodic in nature. Schreuder conceded that Dark Matter's current conclusion "may cause confusion and is not satisfactory" and stated that they are working on a "more conclusive and satisfying ending."
Ex-BioWare writer reveals alternate endings to Mass Effect trilogy
Potential Spoiler Warning Mass Effect fans! Toronto's AM640 did a radio interview recently with former BioWare scribe Drew Karpyshyn, in which he chatted about some of the alternate story theories and endings that BioWare tossed around for the Mass Effect series. Eurogamer has the highlights, including the theory that the Reapers were trying to stop organic life because they were somehow making use of "Dark Energy" (an element only mentioned briefly throughout the series) to bring about the end of the universe. "It's very vague and not fleshed out," says Karpyshyn, adding that "it was something we considered but we ended up going in a different direction." BioWare also played with the idea that Shepard might be an alien at one point, though eventually deemed that too close to the story of Revan in Knights of the Old Republic. Karpyshyn also says BioWare thought about turning Shepard into some combination of organic and cybernetic, a theme that did eventually get generally included in the ending of Mass Effect 3. But in the end, says Karpyshyn, these ideas were just ideas, and should be judged as such. "It's like vaporware," he says. "Vaporware is always perfect, anytime someone talks about the new greatest game. It's perfect until it comes out." Karpyshyn says that even if fans are disappointed with the story as it is, a story that included these other considered ideas, "whatever we came up with, it probably wouldn't be what people want it to be."
Scientists release biggest ever 3D map of the universe, lacks turn-by-turn navigation (video)
The stargazers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics have released a huge three-dimensional map of outer space, a core part of its six-year survey of the skies. Encompassing four billion light-years cubed, the researchers hope to use the map to retrace the movements of the universe through the last six billion years. Using the latest Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-III), the center says the data will help improve their estimates for the quantity of dark matter in space and the effect that dark energy has on the universe's expansion, "two of the greatest mysteries of our time" -- if you're an astrophysicist. Even if you're not, you'll still want to board the animated flight through over 400,000 charted galaxies -- it's embedded after the break.
Alt-week 7.8.2012: Solar flares, trapping dark matter, and life-sized Lego trees
Alt-week peels back the covers on some of the more curious sci-tech stories from the last seven days. This week we swing by some superhero news, look at how solar panels might shape up in the future, explore a Lego forest and see how to grab dark matter just using some household gold and strands of DNA. Not only that, we discover how the sun likes to celebrate the fourth of July with its own firework display. This is alt-week
Universe expansion: dark energy's out, anti-gravity's in, matter and antimatter still can't get along
Dark energy, we barely knew you, but before we ever found out if you were, in fact, the invisible hand pushing the cosmos apart, an Italian scientist ginned up a new theory that has anti-gravity doing the Yoko Ono to the universe's merry band of galaxies. Massimo Villata's theory assumes that both matter and antimatter have positive mass and energy density, which gets particles attracting particles and antiparticles attracting antiparticles through the force of gravity. To give dark matter the heave-ho from the galactic expansion equation, Villata supposes that the theory of general relativity applies in reverse to antimatter particles to create anti-gravity. And just as gravity pulls particles together, anti-gravity shoves them apart -- giving the universe its burgeoning waistline, no clown, king, or colonel required.
Visualized: world's largest neutrino observatory rivals Guatemala sinkhole
Without question, one of the images from 2010 will be the insane, almost incomprehensible sinkhole that emerged in Guatemala earlier this year, but this particular shot from the South Pole does an outstanding job of vying for equal attention. Coming directly from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, this is a look into the planet's largest neutrino observatory, which was just completed after half a decade of work with $279 million. The goal? To detect "subatomic particles traveling near the speed of light," and when you have an ice-bound telescope that encompasses a cubic kilometer of Antarctic ice, well... you've high hopes for success. Will this pipe into the underworld finally lead us to understanding Dark Matter? Will century-old mysteries of the universe finally have answers? Even if not, we're envisioning a heck of an entry fee when it's converted into the world's longest firehouse pole and marketed to affluent tourists who make the trip down.
EVE players to tap new resources with Dominion expansion
Big changes are on the horizon for EVE Online in the Dominion expansion and beyond. Alliance sprawl in 0.0 security (lawless) space is going to be curbed, in favor of a new paradigm where alliances claim less territory but can derive much greater value from what they hold sovereignty over. This is the focus of a dev blog from EVE Game Designer CCP Chronotis -- "The Streams Must Flow". Streams in this case refers to EVE's various revenue streams which are going to be altered in the coming months, and how this will affect players in 0.0 alliances. In the past, supporting a large number of players required an alliance to draw upon the resources of many different solar systems, specifically high-bounty pirate NPCs and valuable ores in addition to a very high passive income from rare moon minerals. CCP is adjusting how those rare minerals are used in Tech II production, meaning more common materials will be used, so Dominion will allow alliances to upgrade their controlled space as a means of generating more income.
GameTap Thursday: Dracula Twins tend to a Dark Matter with Alien Shooter Vengeance
This week, GameTap adds some titles from the land of random to its service following last week's Sam & Max season two finale. Alien Shooter Vengeance (Windows) - Shoot everything that moves. Dark Matter (Windows) - Shoot everything that moves some more. Dracula Twins (Windows) - Shoot everything that moves ... sorry, was getting into a rhythm. Play as Drac's kids and save the old man from some obnoxious vampire hunters. Added to the list of GameTap's free games this week is X2: The Threat, a space trading and combat sim which has absolutely nothing to do with the X-Men whatsoever. The full list of free games can be found after the break.
