What killed the dinosaurs? Dark matter, says theoretical physicist Lisa Randall

A number of theories have been advanced for what killed off the dinosaurs more than 66 million years ago, but until 2014 none involved dark matter and meteors. In her book, Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs, acclaimed Harvard theoretical physicist Lisa Randall outlines a complex – and radical theory – that goes something like this: about 66 million years ago, gravitational perturbations caused by a thin pancake-shaped disc of dark matter in the Milky Way galaxy dislodged icy comets in the Oort cloud at the very edge of the known solar system, resulting in the fiery meteoroid that eventually crash-landed in the Yucatan, leading to the mass extinction of more than 75 per cent...