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New Scientist columnist Chanda Prescod‑Weinstein argues that we may have already detected dark matter, but understanding whether it behaves as a particle or a wave is key to confirming its existence. The article points out that the evidence for a mysterious component of the universe comes almost entirely from its gravitational influence on stars, galaxies and the cosmic web. While this “missing mass” is widely accepted, it remains invisible to any instrument that looks for electromagnetic signals, leaving scientists to infer its properties indirectly.

In practice, the way dark matter is searched for depends on whether it is treated as a particle or as a field that spreads out like a wave. Particle‑based experiments look for tiny recoils when a dark‑matter particle collides with a nucleus in a deep‑underground detector, or for excess photons from annihilation events in space. Wave‑like theories, on the other hand, predict that dark matter could form a