The epic, behind-the-scenes story of an astounding gap in our scientific knowledge of the cosmos. In the past few years, a handful of scientists have been in a race to explain a disturbing aspect of our universe: only 4 percent of it consists of the matter that makes up you, me, our books, and every planet, star, and galaxy. The rest96 percent of the universeis completely unknown. Richard Panek tells the dramatic story of how scientists reached this conclusion, and what theyre doing to find this "e;dark"e; matter and an even more bizarre substance called dark energy. Based on in-depth, on-site reporting and hundreds of interviewswith everyone from Berkeleys feisty Saul Perlmutter and Johns Hopkinss meticulous Adam Riess to the quietly revolutionary Vera Rubinthe book offers an intimate portrait of the bitter rivalries and fruitful collaborations, the eureka moments and blind alleys, that have fueled their search, redefined science, and reinvented the universe.