The Biggest Thing We Can’t See: Dark Matter - Professor Céline Bœhm

In this episode of Astrophysics for All, I’m joined by Professor Céline Bœhm, an astroparticle physicist and Professor of Particle Physics at the University of Sydney, whose research focuses on dark matter and the fundamental structure of the universe.Although we can’t see dark matter directly, it makes up most of the matter in the universe. So how do we know it exists — and why has it been so difficult to detect?In this conversation, we explore how scientists use galaxies, the cosmic microwave background, and particle physics to piece together clues about dark matter’s nature. We also discuss how theorists and experimentalists work together, what makes dark matter such a challenging problem, and what discovering it could mean for our understanding of the universe.Professor Bœhm also shares her journey into astrophysics and her advice for students interested in exploring physics at the intersection of the very small and the very large.