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The hundreds of billions of galaxies that populate the observable universe, each made up of hundreds of billions of stars, interstellar gas and dust, planets, asteroids, comets and so on, constitute only a part of the reality that surrounds us and of which we ourselves are composed. The remaining part is made up of what cosmologists call "dark matter". We cannot touch it, nor see it, nor can we interact with it in any way other than by detecting its gravitational effects. What is this mysterious dark component of the universe made of, how was it produced and, above all, what hope can we ever have of knowing the profound nature of reality when we are excluded from most of it?