Has dark matter been glimpsed at last? Speaking at the American Physical Society meeting in Denver, the researchers highlighted three signals in their data which could represent wimp particle collisions. However, the same laboratory has previously reported two other possible detections of dark matter which later proved to have been caused by the equipment itself. Researchers said their findings fell well short of an official discovery, but argued that they warrant further investigation. Dr Rupak Mahapatra, one of the researchers from Texas A&M Univeristy, said: "This is certainly very exciting, but not fully convincing...we just need more data to be sure. For now, we have to live with this tantalizing hint of one of the biggest puzzles of our time. One sticking point is that the data generated by the experiment points towards a wimp particle that is much lighter than most theories predict - meaning it would be easier to produce one in an experiment. If this was the case, previous studies would in all likelihood have discovered the particles by now, experts said. Prof Martin Pohl, a particle physicist based at Cern, said the results from the American study were interesting but added: "I am surprised [the mass] was so low because that would mean it would be easier to produce such a particle, and to my knowledge I do not know that any such particle has shown up."