Most estimates suggest that it could cost a few billion dollars a year to scatter enough sulfur particles in the atmosphere to change the weather patterns of the planet.

NEWYORKER: The Climate Fixers

So far, though, this has been experimentally limited to small particles and a few tiny molecules.

FORBES: Making Something Exist in Two Places At Once

There are so few air particles to create drag that a slow rotation can quickly accelerate into an uncontrollable spin.

FORBES: Watch Felix Baumgartner's First-Person View Of His Death Spin

Sulphate particles, meanwhile, survive only a few years in the atmosphere.

ECONOMIST: Geo-engineering

Other models, relying on the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, project that any radioactive plumes would head east and drift over water for a few days, such that the majority of the radioactive particles would gradually dissipate into the ocean.

FORBES: What's Next For Japan: The Short and Long Term

As dark matter particles steam through the detector, scientists hope that a few will collide with the argon atoms.

BBC: Dark Matter: Experiment to shed light on dark particles