Let a New Force be with Us?

[Ursa major]

Physicists may have found signs of a fifth fundamental force of nature. The findings come from research, carried out at FermiLab in Illinois, on the behaviour of muons.

Muons: 'Strong' evidence found for a new force of nature

Physicists may have just made a major breakthrough in our understanding of the Universe.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Dave]

I do hope this will finally explain why cats always land on their feet but toast with marmalade lands with the sticky side down.

 

[Ursa major]

I expect the first of those phenomena -- the cats' paws being preferentially attracted to the ground -- is due to an overabundance of cations in them....

 

[Brian G Turner]

More info on this in this piece on Bad Astronomy:

Wobbling muons hint strongly at the existence of bizarre new physics

Results from the Fermilab's Muon g-2 experiment disagree with theory, hinting at new physica to be found.

www.syfy.com

 

[Venusian Broon]

As the article @Brian G Turner posted and this vid discusses...

...The 'LHC bump' that might have been something last year had a confidence of 3.9 sigma, and this was found to be random and dissappeared. This result has a sigma of 4.2. So better, but still a little bit to go, to get it over the finishing line!

And as Matt states, this little bit of uncertainty will no doubt no stop theorists send out an avalanche of papers on what it might mean

 

[Vladd67]

I do hope this will finally explain why cats always land on their feet but toast with marmalade lands with the sticky side down.

I believe this was used in the quest for perpetual motion, a cat was fitted to a drive shaft with slices of toast covered in marmalade fitted to its back.

 

[Ursa major]

a cat was fitted to a drive shaft with slices of toast covered in marmalade fitted to its back.

That was the plan, but no-one ever managed to fit the toast to the cat's back.

It was both a fiddly and a dangerous job, so the necessary wearing of heavily armoured gloves deprived the fitter of the dexterity required for the task.