For decades, we have known of the existence of matter. This "dark" matter is five times more abundant than ordinary matter and plays a crucial role in the evolution of the universe. However, we have not yet been able to identify the nature of this matter.
Anna Bertolini and Dominik Fuchs of the Max Planck Institute for Physics are working on the CRESST experiment at the Gran Sasso underground laboratory in Italy. The goal of the experiment is the direct detection of dark matter. The two scientists* explain how this works exactly and why the inside of the experiment is one of the coldest places in the universe.