“Oh, Really?”, a possible fifth Force in the universe...

[Tonguez]

A 'no-brainer Nobel Prize': Hungarian scientists may have found a fifth force of nature

Physics centers essentially on four forces that control our known, visible universe, governing everything from the production of heat in the sun to the way your laptop works. They are gravity, electromagnetism, the weak nuclear force, and the strong force.

edition.cnn.com

Scientists at the Institute for Nuclear Research at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Atomki) have posted findings showing what could be an example of that fifth force at work. The scientists were closely watching how an excited helium atom emitted light as it decayed. The particles split at an unusual angle which couldn't be explained by known physics. The study's lead scientist, Attila Krasznahorkay, told CNN that this was the second time his team had detected a new particle, which they call X17, because they calculated its mass at 17 megaelectronvolts.
"X17 could be a particle, which connects our visible world with the dark matter," he said in an email.

California physicist have theorized the unseen fifth force in action as a "protophobic force," meaning that it was as though the particles were "afraid of protons."
Meanwhile, nuclear physicists around the world set to work looking for errors in the Hungarians' work, and have come up empty-handed over the past few years.

SO Hungarians observe an unknown particle that connects our visible world with the dark matter? I couldnt help thinking this could be Latverians trying to open Darkforce portals to hell for Dr Doom!!!!

But how cool is a new fundamental force of the universe? Though does it get us closer to a Unified theory or has the universe just got a whole lot more complicated?

 

[Umbran]

Your thread title is overstated and misleading.

The study's lead scientist, Attila Krasznahorkay, told CNN that this was the second time his team had detected a new particle, which they call X17, because they calculated its mass at 17 megaelectronvolts.

That is... weird.

I say that because that mass is pretty low. At that mass, particle accelerators should have been creating these things by the dozens, for years. To only see two is very strange.

"X17 could be a particle, which connects our visible world with the dark matter," he said in an email.

Or, it could be a very tiny elephant named Bingbong. I am unimpressed by such statements to the media. This sounds flashy, but this result has far too little verification to support such speculation.

But how cool is a new fundamental force of the universe? Though does it get us closer to a Unified theory or has the universe just got a whole lot more complicated?

Neither. This is one team (who, by the way, seem to have announced new particle finds in the past, and then retracted those announcements without explanation), with only a couple of detections. That's not a new force, or new science, yet. It seems that no other teams have replicated the results. We'll want far more detections to happen to nail down that the thing is real, and not some anomaly in their mechanisms, or other form of error, before we start really considering this to be solid new science.

 

[Janx]

I'd seen that news title recently and felt dubious. Thanks to Umbran explain it for us.

 

[Morrus]

Yeah that’s definitely how the news media is generally playing it.

 

[Li Shenron]

You never know, but usually its best to be skeptic of boombastic titles about scientific discoveries out of nowhere, in case they are just cr4p.

I especially hate the bad habit of some media of making sounding titles about "new groundbreaking cure for X", which is maybe based on a real news of advancement in research, but do they ever think about how many people who have a sick relative can be lead to a false hope?

Big scientific discoveries are more often pre-announced or rumoured for weeks or months, like it happened with graphene or the black hole picture.

 

[Umbran]

Yeah that’s definitely how the news media is generally playing it.

Well, yeah. Because, "Group finds a couple of weird results that need a whole lot more looking into before saying anything definitive," doesn't generate click-driven-ad-revenue.

It is rather like another story I saw going around about a vaccination that is intended to make a cat non-allergenic. Give Fluffy a shot, and your allergic friends can come on over without needing antihistamines and a box of Kleenex! Except, the research results were preclinical - meaning that they were a premilinary test to judge whether the shot was safe to give to cats. The study did nothing to determine if the shot was effective in reducing the allergic response they generate.

But, of course, "New allergy preventative shot moves to next phase of testing, and is still years away, at best," is not a headline that gets interest.

 

[Morrus]

That’s mainstream science news reporting for you!

 

[Istbor]

Your thread title is overstated and misleading.



That is... weird.

I say that because that mass is pretty low. At that mass, particle accelerators should have been creating these things by the dozens, for years. To only see two is very strange.



Or, it could be a very tiny elephant named Bingbong. I am unimpressed by such statements to the media. This sounds flashy, but this result has far too little verification to support such speculation.



Neither. This is one team (who, by the way, seem to have announced new particle finds in the past, and then retracted those announcements without explanation), with only a couple of detections. That's not a new force, or new science, yet. It seems that no other teams have replicated the results. We'll want far more detections to happen to nail down that the thing is real, and not some anomaly in their mechanisms, or other form of error, before we start really considering this to be solid new science.

While I agree with and appreciate what Umbran says...

I am still planning on making a monster for my campaign called "Umbran - Destroyer of dreams". Probably a cool Eldritch horror type of thing.

 

[Umbran]

That’s mainstream science news reporting for you!

On the tombstone of the world, there will be a simple statement, "Clickbait was our doom".

 

[Umbran]

I am still planning on making a monster for my campaign called "Umbran - Destroyer of dreams". Probably a cool Eldritch horror type of thing.

I go by many names. You give my name among the elves. To the gnomes I am Umbran the Unbeliever. Among the dwarves, I am Umbran the Pragmatist. Among the various peoples of Gith, I am known only as The Real, but they do not speak of me, for to catch my gaze is dissolution to them. In the place called Sigil, to tell someone to Get Real is a curse worse than death itself, for it may mean your unmaking, an erasure of your existence past, present, and future.

But I am no eldritch horror. My manifestation is but of a small, bespectacled man at a desk, with a ledger at hand containing an accounting of the universe. On the desk is a nameplate, but instead of any mortal name, it bears only the inscription, "Oh, really?"