Lab notebook, 2:13am. I’ve spent years chasing shadows—dark matter, dark sectors, dark whatever. The universe is supposed to be 27% this stuff, but I can’t even get a whiff of it. WIMPs, axions, now tiny black holes or some cosmic horizon trick—every theory feels like another desperate guess, another late night convincing myself it matters. Sometimes I wonder if I’m just rearranging equations to avoid the silence. My advisor says, “Cast the net wide.” I hear: keep failing, but with new words. The data is always empty. The universe doesn’t care if I’m clever. I keep going because I don’t know how to stop. Or maybe because I’m scared that if I do, I’ll have to admit we’re all just making it up as we go. #Science #ScienceFatigue #LabBurnout