The key to those sharper pics, it seems, is so-called "dark field microscopy, " a technique that, as NewScientist points out, is normally used by biologists.

ENGADGET: X-rays get boost from "dark field" technology

The deaf-mute helped my grandfather to his feet and led him to the door, where he could see the dark field swimming with shadows: the villagers, the snowdrifts, the fence.

NEWYORKER: The Tiger��s Wife

That's because as the Earth moves around the Sun, it is moving into a stationary field of dark matter - and for half the year it will be moving against the tide of dark matter - just like driving into the rain.

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

"We need very accurate high resolution images over a very wide field for the Dark Energy Survey" says Dr Peter Doel from UCL's Optical Science Laboratory.

BBC: Getting the measure of dark energy

Auxiliary power kept the playing field from going totally dark, but escalators stopped working and the concourses were only illuminated by small banks of lights tied in to emergency service.

WSJ: Super Bowl Outage Traced to Faulty Entergy Gear

"The 16 January kidnapping and murder of foreign oil workers at the In Amenas gas field has cast a dark cloud over the outlook for the country's energy sector, " it said.

BBC: Algeria oil industry: 'Dark cloud' over production

They predict that about 73% of the Universe is made up of dark energy - a pervasive energy field that acts as a sort of anti-gravity to stop the Universe from contracting back in on itself.

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

In the pristine white of the field hospital, the miners' dark journey seems a lifetime ago.

CNN: Chilean miners waited for death

Researchers at Griffith University have managed to snap the first image of a single atom's shadow and, while the dark spot may be physically small, the implications for the field of quantum computing are huge.

ENGADGET: Researchers capture a single atom's shadow, has implications for quantum computers