Experimental Progress in the Direct Detection of Dark Matter

Several experimental approaches are being utilised for the direct detection of the hypothetical weakly interacting massive particle which may constitute the majority of the non-luminous component of the Galaxy. These experimental techniques exploit the coherent recoil of target nuclei during an interaction and include thermal, ionisation, scintillation and tracking detectors. The challenges associated with this detection, the techniques employed and the current status of these searches are reviewed.