Scientists may have located a fifth force of nature

Until now, science has found four forces of nature, including the strong and weak nuclear forces, electromagnetism and gravity.  This is why it came as a shock when Hungarian scientists witnessed this strange phenomenon interacting with dark matter (invisible matter that makes up, roughly, 30% of the universe).

“The experimentalists weren’t able to claim that it was a new force,” lead author Jonathan Feng from the University of California, Irvine said in a statement. “They simply saw an excess of events that indicated a new particle, but it was not clear to them whether it was a matter particle or a force-carrying particle.”

The discovery of the new particle (and possible force) came when they were looking for  “Dark Photons”, electromagnetic particles that would interact with dark matter.  They noticed an anomaly in the radioactive decay of beryllium which could indicates that there's a new particle about 30 times the mass of an electron.

“If true, it’s revolutionary. For decades, we’ve known of four fundamental forces: gravitation, electromagnetism, and the strong and weak nuclear forces,” says Feng.

“If confirmed by further experiments, this discovery of a possible fifth force would completely change our understanding of the universe, with consequences for the unification of forces and dark matter.”

Sometimes if feels like these discoveries can't happen fast enough.  Of course, this is just one study.  Fortunately, scientists around the world can work with this energy to figure out what it is.