Dark Matter and Dark Energy

The Hidden 95% of the Universe

By: Brian Clegg

Narrated by: Mark Cameron

All the matter and light we can see in the universe makes up a trivial five per cent of everything. The rest is hidden. This could be the biggest puzzle that science has ever faced.

Since the 1970s, astronomers have been aware that galaxies have far too little matter in them to account for the way they spin around: they should fly apart, but something concealed holds them together.

That ’something' is dark matter - invisible material in five times the quantity of the familiar stuff of stars and planets. By the 1990s we also knew that the expansion of the universe was accelerating. Something, named dark energy, is pushing it to expand faster and faster.

Across the universe, this requires enough energy that the equivalent mass would be nearly 14 times greater than all the visible material in existence. Brian Clegg explains this major conundrum in modern science and looks at how scientists are beginning to find solutions to it.

©2019 Brian Clegg (P)2020 W. F. Howes Ltd

Critic reviews

“'Clear and compact. It's hard to fault as a brief, easily digestible introduction to some of the biggest questions in the Universe.” (Giles Sparrow)

A great introduction to the fields of dark matter and dark energy

A very fair overview of dark energy and dark matter told in a succinct but understandable way for a scientifically literate audience.

Thorough Exploration of Dark Matter

This is a very detailed and well explained walk through of the current landscape around the origins of the Universe and Dark Matter/Energy

Not bad

Very interesting book filled with great information, however do not expect the secrets of dark matter or dark energy to be revealed. Humanity knows very little about dark matter or dark energy at this time, so I’m often skeptical when I see a book about these two topics. Most of the time the book revolves around a lot of speculation and the author will go off on tangents about what we already know and could possibly be associated with DM and DE. This is what happens in this book, but it’s always interesting to hear what and how different scientists are thinking about these subjects. Someday we’ll hopefully know what is truly out there in the universe but for now this subject and its investigation are fascinating.

Highly recommended

Trying to understand the opaque

Excellent narration. Well, it gets tricky when it is theoretical and when people diversify the compensations, it gets opaque.

Quick Intro to the Subject and Fun

I’m glad this was a shorter book with good information to absorb quickly. Plus the stories of the history behind the topic of dark matter were fun and told with a side of humor. The matter of fact narrator added to this aspect of the book.

Worth a Re-listen

Dense material presented in a way that is interesting & compelling! I’m going to re-listen to really absorb the content.

Excellent review of current understanding

This is a concise, clear, approachable and current summary of the title subject matter. Zero frills but still engaging; provides comprehensive history and appropriate boundaries to what we ‘know.’ Precisely what I would hope for.

Great info with dubious pronunciations

I study astrophysics and do astrophotography so I know about a lot of this stuff , but this Audiobook actually taught me some stuff I didn’t know and comes across in a friendly non patronizing way .
My only gripe is that with an audio book the delivery is so massively important and wrongly pronounced words and terms are really jarring to the ear .
It speaks of either lack of research or average delivery . I’m not sure if the reader is a scientist or just a voice actor . But hearing “ Nuculer” for Nuclear , ManGENELIC instead or Magellanic and at least 3 ways or pronouncing Cepheid does take away from the immersive experience

Awesome and cool!

It really goes into depth about dark matter and dark energy and I recommend it.

Breezy style, but some painful pronunciation

I enjoyed the content - a fairly up to date run through of the current theories relating to dark matter and dark energy together with the evidence for them. Written in a breezy and approachable writing style - albeit with a sense of cheerleading for the MOND theory in places that felt a little out of place given the generally neutral tone of the rest of the book.

My main issue was the narration. Mr. Cameron has a lovely speaking voice and was a good fit for the material, but somebody could have given him a pronunciation guide. “New-clear” not “Nucular”, “electromagnetism” not “electro-magnetisism” and “Magellanic cloud” not <whatever it was that the narrator said >. It might sound picky, but the mispronunciations really stick out like a bum note in a piano recital.