The growing synergy between astrophysics, particle physics, and low background experiments strengthens the possibility of detecting astrophysical non-baryonic matter. The idea of direct detection is that an incident, massive weakly interacting particle could collide with a nucleus and transfer an energy that could be measured. The present low levels of background achieved by the PNL/USC Ge detector represent a new technology which yields interesting bounds on galactic cold dark matter and on light bosons emitted from the Sun. Further improvements require the development of cryogenic detectors, e.g. superheated superconducting colloid (SSCD) and crystal bolometers. We report two tests designed to study the practicality of a superheated superconducting colloid detector using a SQUID readout system. Furthermore, we show that in case of particles with spin interactions, one should consider detectors based on compounds of boron, lithium and fluorine.