When does Carlos Frenk predict dark matter will be discovered, and do the other panelists agree?

Carlos Frenk told Melvyn Bragg he expects dark matter to be discovered within five years, comparing the competition to the 1950s race for the double helix and noting detector sensitivity has improved by factors of billions in 30 years. Carolyn Crawford said she could not be as optimistic, since experiments keep improving without finding the particles. Frenk said finding it would rank alongside Darwinian evolution.

• Crawford said the answer could arrive in a month or take 20 years.
• Frenk said the first dark matter experiments ran in 1982.
• Anne Green said a discovery would mean new physics beyond the standard model.

▸In their words

“I've been saying this for 15, but now I really mean it.” Carlos Frenk · at 49:35 — open in the transcript →

Source: our own transcription of the episode. The full conversation is on In Our Time (2026-10-26). Read the whole episode summary →

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