Published in Physics World, 29 Oct 2009
A preprint that uses NASA data to claim “possible evidence” for dark matter has led some researchers to question the US space agency’s data-sharing policies.
The preprint – which was uploaded to the arXiv internet server earlier this month by physicists Lisa Goodenough of New York University and Dan Hooper of Fermilab in Batavia, Illinois – makes the claim by matching a theoretical model of dark matter to freely available data from NASA’s Fermi gamma-ray telescope. But with an official analysis of the same data yet to be published, some scientists have pointed out that, depending on the validity of the evidence, the preprint will either cause confusion or steal glory from the Fermi team. […]
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