  NEWS-G (New Experiments With Spheres-Gas) is an experiment aiming to shine a
light on the dark matter conundrum with a novel gaseous detector, the spherical
proportional counter. It uses light gases, such as hydrogen, helium, and neon,
as targets to expand dark matter searches to the sub-GeV/c$^{2}$ mass region.
NEWS-G produced its first results with a 60 cm in diameter detector installed
at LSM (France), excluding at 90% C.L. cross-sections above $4.4\cdot{10}^{37}$
cm$^{2}$ for dark matter candidates of 0.5 GeV/c$^{2}$ mass. Currently, a 140
cm in diameter detector is being built at LSM and a commissioning run is
underway, prior to its installation at SNOLAB (Canada) at the end of the year.
Presented here are developments incorporated in this new detector: a) sensor
technologies using resistive materials and multi-anode read-out that allow high
gain and high pressure operation; b) gas purification techniques to remove
contaminants (H$_{2}$O, O$_{2}$); c) reduction of ${}^{210}$Pb induced
background through copper electroforming methods; d) utilisation of UV-lasers
for detector calibration, detector response monitoring and estimation of gas
related fundamental properties. This next phase of NEWS-G will allow searches
for low mass dark matter with unprecedented sensitivity.
