Dark matter

Don LincolnParticle physicist at Fermilab, author and science communicator

• Lincoln explains he avoids dark matter experiments because any single experiment covers only a narrow slice of the possible mass range.

  “if you make an experiment that searches one mass range it'll be blind to another mass range”

  Lex Fridman Podcast: #497 – Biggest Mysteries in Physics: Antimatter, Dark Energy & ToE – Don Lincoln (May 29, 2026) · Listen from 2:47:26

• Lincoln argues that galaxies without dark matter, such as DF2 and DF4, are paradoxically strong evidence that dark matter exists.

  “the existence of a galaxy with no dark matter is very strong evidence that dark matter is real because you can take the dark matter out”

  Lex Fridman Podcast: #497 – Biggest Mysteries in Physics: Antimatter, Dark Energy & ToE – Don Lincoln (May 29, 2026) · Listen from 2:39:35

• Lincoln says the Bullet Cluster changed his mind from favoring modified gravity or inertia to believing dark matter is real.

  “The bullet cluster is strong evidence that dark matter is a real thing”

  Lex Fridman Podcast: #497 – Biggest Mysteries in Physics: Antimatter, Dark Energy & ToE – Don Lincoln (May 29, 2026) · Listen from 2:39:35