With the observations of the universe in the 20th century, we’ve come across the fact it is not just what we can see. The earth, the solar system, and the galaxies – all the visible matter don’t even form 5% of the universe.
Instead, there is a presence of the hypothetical form of matter, which is responsible for adding gravity to the galaxies – called the Dark Matter. We are unable to discover it, but we can observe its presence in the structure of galaxies. It is still a mystery for scientists to find out the dark matter.
In theory, the dark matter hypothesized in the form of a macroscopic dark matter or macrons. These macrons can directly interact with human bodies, which can cause significant death – as found in the study, Death by Dark Matter. But the researchers & scientists did not find anything in its evidence. Therefore, this theory is not accepted yet.
Another hypothesis about the dark matter is that it consists of the exotic particles, which undergoes weak interaction with the baryonic matter but can exert the gravitational pull. These hypothetically discovered particles are Weakly Interacting Massive Particles or WIMPs.
Weakly Interacting Massive Particles interact via weak interactions with the baryonic matter, but it is still able to create the gravitational pull for the galaxies. Therefore, the galaxies have such a structure and distribution of matter in them. Also, we are living in the presence of these particles.
So, do you think that these hypothesized particles interact with the human body? Do they harm us? Or will they? – Since it is present everywhere, therefore, it interacts with the human body but does not do any harm.
In fact, “In a study, the researchers discovered that the WIMP particles, which are the leading proposed candidate for the dark matter, interact with the human body every single minute.” – A study based on several dark matter detection efforts carried out by Katherine Freese and Christopher Savage (Theoretical physicists at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor).
Earlier, Katherine thought that the WIMP could collide with the nuclei of hydrogen and oxygen in the human body, maybe once a year only. Later on, the prediction was found to be the wrong one.
In an experiment performed by Katherine and Savage found that there must be about 100,000 collisions of WIMP on a human body per year and concluded that the dark matter interacts with the human body. They used the average-sized lump of flesh that ought to collide with the dark matter. Then, they calculated the number of collisions when the flesh, mostly of hydrogen and oxygen nuclei, interacted with the dark matter.
“It is also discovered about WIMP that if two WIMPs collide with each other, then there will be an enormous amount of energy, even 200 times more than the energy released by the protons.” – How will this affect human life?
This collision of two WIMPs inside the human body can cause mutations, which is dangerous for life. The researchers also studied whether the energy released by the WIMP and human body interaction might cause cancer.
Freese said that their collision could be dangerous for life as they are a radiation source, but the possibility if this is very low. So, it won’t harm the human body. Instead, we should worry about the other naturally occurring sources of radiation that would create more problems for us.
The good thing about the dark matter is it is harmless to the human body until they collide, but the collision has negligible possibility. Also, one of the researchers said that if the dark matter affects the body, we could have detected it earlier. Since we are living for thousands of years with this interaction without any signs of problems, so, we are safe.
