Physicists are continually searching for the elusive dark matter, which is far more abundant than the visible matter in the universe. In the couple of weeks, there has been some intriguing talk about the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS) experiment in Minnesota, which announced that two pulses were detected that may be the result of dark matter candidates known as weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs).

Physicist Lawrence Krauss (author of Hiding in the Mirror and the upcoming Quantum Man) has a great opinion piece on this in the Wall Street Journal, and Paul Davies wrote a similarly compelling piece for The Guardian. These are very balanced looks at the situation, and none are going overboard the way the mainstream media has been. For a very somber look at the results, there is Peter Woit's pessimistic take in his Not Even Wrong blog, and this very even-handed Scientific American article does a good job.

While all the attention over the last year has been focused on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), is it possible that the next major discovery in particle physics will come out of the CDMS? Will 2010, perhaps, be the year where we actually detect dark matter ... or at least get the first run of solid evidence that will be confirmed in years to come? (As I've said before, science is a process that takes time.) Only time will tell.

With the year ending, I'm finishing up my goal of reading 50 books this year. (Actually, I hit 51, because I left one off my list when I did my preliminary count last week!) One of the books is the intriguing The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, which I mentioned a couple of weeks ago. It's the story of William Kamkwamba, a boy who decides to build a windmill to generate "Electric Wind" for his African village.

The book is excellent, and what I like most about it is that it doesn't bash you over the head with a bunch of scientific jargon (although one of my minor complaints is that I'd like more technical detail, which I suppose is a bit of a contradiction). It focuses on the human story that's at the heart of all true innovation, and that's a story which can reach anyone, regardless of educational level or scientific familiarity. This is a book which I could see promoted on both the Science Channel and The Oprah Winfrey Show, and that's saying something. (It's already been promoted on Comedy Central's The Daily Show, which is where I heard about it. See the earlier post for the link to that interview.)

Now that I've read the book, though, I've posted a review of  The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind. Let me know what you think. Have you read the book? Offer your own User Rating to go along with mine, whether you agree or disagree with my assessment.

With the growth of the telephone App software industry in recent years, most notably through the iPhone, it leads me to question how this technology can be leveraged for scientific education purposes. I've spoken often about how the internet is working in this regard, but what is available for your (or your children's) cellphones.

Well, it turns out that there is an App out there specifically designed to begin exploring some basic quantum physics concepts. Called Schrodinger's Rat (based on the Schrodinger Cat paradox in quantum physics), the game contains 117 different mazes (one for each element on the periodic table). The mazes contain various quantum physics element, such as disappearing walls or mercury pools, which help or hinder the efforts. The more success you have in completing the mazes, the more rats you save from oblivion.

Unfortunately, since I don't have an iPhone (or an iPod touch, which apparently can run the program with version 3.0 or later software), I can't actually test it out ... still, it's a cool little story, so figured I'd pass it along. At $0.99 for the App, it's worth checking out, and then you can come back and let us know what you think of it. Find out more on the Schrodinger's Rat website, which contains an "Educational Video."

Last week, I mentioned Neil Turok's fascinating and worthwhile Next Einstein out of Africa project which seeks to provide advanced math and science funding to educate African students, in the hope that they would then be able to use this knowledge to solve the significant problems facing Africa in the years to come.

I realized as I've written about this topic that there are precious few physics-related charities out there ... that I know of, at least. In fact, I've decided to start a new feature listing science-related (well, specifically physics-related) charities. I figure it will mostly consist of museums, education-related institutes, and maybe some private organizations that fund research ... but anything more original, along the lines of the Next Einstein project, would certainly be welcome.

So can you think of a good physics-related charity to include on the list? Just leave a comment and maybe it'll get added!