Dark matter and dark energy: A physicist's perspective

For physicists, recent developments in astrophysics and cosmology present exciting challenges. We are conducting "experiments" in energy regimes some of which will be probed by accelerators in the near future, and others which are inevitably the subject of more speculative theoretical investigations. Dark matter is an area where we have hope of making discoveries both with accelerator experiments and dedicated searches. Inflation and dark energy lie in regimes where presently our only hope for a fundamental understanding lies in string theory.