A shadow of the greater world

The Cosmic Evolution Survey has produced a map of the "dark matter" of the universe. And Maggie Whitlin, at Seed magazine, has produced a beautiful essay that illuminates the map for me. Here are a couple of samples:

In one sense, the image is categorically sublime. Scientists have taken something that cannot be seen, and they've let us see it. They've not only increased our knowledge of the large-scale structure of dark matter, they've also taken something inherently invisible and given it an accessible beauty. . . .

When science presents us with an image of dark matter, of electron orbitals, of general relativity, of anything fundamentally unseeable, it teases us. The visual draws us in with its incredible elegance; it lets us think for just a moment that the secrets of the universe are spread out before our eyes. And then, as we start to read the text that inevitably accompanies the picture, it hits us: Our eyes will never be as big as our science. Our visual system is the best source of intuitive information, the kind of stuff that we need to survive, but it gives us only a shadow of the greater world.