Readers are curious about dark matter, plastics’ effects on pollination and Percy’s selfies

Let’s talk neutrinos

Two dark matter experiments have spotted signs of neutrinos knocking into atomic nuclei in their detectors. The finding portends a future obstacle for the detectors, Emily Conover reported in “ ‘Fog’ invades dark matter experiments” (SN: 8/24/24, p. 12).

These detectors scan for dark matter’s interactions with the nucleus of a xenon atom. Reader Robert Walty wondered how that could work. Doesn’t dark matter interact with normal matter only through gravity?