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Scientists at Fermilab close in on fifth force of nature (www.bbc.com)

submitted 1 year ago by TinyPizza@kbin.social to c/science@kbin.social

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Physicists believe that an unknown force could be acting on sub-atomic particles known as muons.

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[–] ShaunaTheDead@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Don't trust particle physicists! A lot junk science articles come from particle physicists specifically because it's a big part of their job to look for new particles and they get a lot of their funding from making bold claims like this. lol I'm mostly kidding, but always take into account what a person's motivation (monetary motivation specifically) before believing what they say.

[–] LepcisMagna@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I admit I'm taking your joke a little too seriously - Dr. Hossenfelder's misguided crusade against particle physics has made me sensitive to this - but this isn't so much a new particle as it is testing a prediction of quantum theory against experimental results and confirming 20 years of discrepancy. Amusingly, the reason they're getting excited now is because they're getting closer to refining the calculation to a 5σ difference from theory - in other words, they already knew it was potentially new physics, and this is trying to confirm it.
I recommend the PBS Space Time video if you want a thorough (if a bit technical) explanation, or Fermilab's which breaks it out a bit more simply.

[–] ShaunaTheDead@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

I got called out in a very good way! You're absolutely right that I got that opinion from Sabine Hossenfelder who does have some weird opinions tbh. For example, she seems to be obsessed with Elon Musk (EW!).