(Inside Science) – Physicists are on the hunt for elusive dark matter, the hypothesized but as yet unidentified stuff that makes up a large majority of the matter in the universe.

They had long favored "weakly interacting massive particles," known as WIMPs, as the most likely dark matter candidate, but after an exhaustive search, some scientists are moving on to more exotic particles.

By Vikram Jandhyala&Nitin Baliga, Inside Science - We recently met with a host of biotechnology leaders and were struck by their infatuation with Big Data and machine learning. In fact, upon reflection, it was amazing how often the word "algorithm" came up in the course of our conversations with these accomplished scientists.

Don't get us wrong. The boom in software and computing has achieved powerful and profound results in our society. And, yes, the world is a better place, thanks to data analytics.

Inside Science -- How can you tell how a creature walked when all that you have is the head?

For many years, scientists looked to the foramen magnum – the large hole at the base of the skull where the brain connects to the spine – to find out. They believed it showed if an early human was a biped that walked on two legs, or a quadruped that walked on four. But a recent study published in the Journal of Human Evolution calls this into question.

By Gabriel Popkin, Inside Science -- When leaders of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory, or LIGO, announced in February the first-ever direct detection of a gravitational wave, astrophysicists Scott Ransom from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory and Andrea Lommen at Franklin and Marshall University in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, had mixed feelings.

By Marsha Lewis, Inside Science – What do the movies: "Frozen," "Thor," and "Iron Man" all have in common? They’re all examples of when science and science fiction collide.

From the "final frontier" to a frozen fantasy world, scientists and storytellers are working together to bring facts into fiction films. 

“Hollywood reaches more people than any other group in the world and I think it has the opportunity to inspire more people than any other group in the world,” said Rick Loverd, program director for The Science and Entertainment Exchange in Los Angeles, California.

By Marsha Lewis, Inside Science TV. The moon — it can appear full, shining like a beacon in the night or just a sliver of a nightlight. Still, it’s always there.

Image Credit: NASA.gov

But what if we didn't have a moon?

Here’s the top five things we would miss without it.

1.       Nights would be much, much darker. The next brightest object in the night sky is Venus – but it still wouldn’t be enough to light up the sky – a full moon is nearly two thousand times brighter than Venus is at its brightest.