That wonder molecule of life on Earth, DNA, is now being enlisted in the search for an exotic species zooming through the cosmos: dark matter.

As far back as the 1930s, astronomers watching distant galaxies saw that something was missing: There were not enough stars to account for the heavy gravity needed to whirl galaxies so quickly or smash them together so swiftly.

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Scientists cant see dark matter particles, but they think they may be able to capture evidence of them when they ping into other tiny things, like balls on a pool table. Previous ideas for capturing these interactions required huge spaces, but a group of scientists has come up with the idea for a detector that would fit on a large coffee table.

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DNA may help scientists find ‘dark matter,’ the glue that binds galaxies