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Using a technique called pendellösung interferometry, a team of physicists...have used neutron beams to probe the crystal structure of silicon at the highest precision yet achieved... This has revealed previously unrecognized properties in silicon, a material crucial to technology; more detailed information about the properties of the neutron; and placed important constraints on the fifth force, if it exists. In a perfect silicon crystal, sheets of atoms in the lattice are arranged in planes that repeat in spacing and orientation. Bouncing the beam precisely off these planes can cause the neutrons to diverge in their routes through the lattice, generating...

Since the mid-1970s, modern physics has rested on the knowledge of four fundamental forces of nature: gravity, electromagnetism, the strong nuclear force, and the weak nuclear force. Now scientists are on the verge of discovering a fifth force of nature, which could change the field of physics forever. According to a recent paper published by University of California physicists in the peer-reviewed journal Physical Review Letters, what physicists thought was a new particle of matter could be a new force altogether.

Scientists are ecstatic over the fact that they may have just discovered the fifth fundamental force of nature. The possible discovery of a previously-unknown subatomic particle looks set to finally bring the elusive dark matter into the mix. The discovery centers on a new type of boson that possesses characteristics previously unseen in particles. Furthermore, its existence casts doubt upon whether the known ‘sector’ of matter and particles exists alongside a ‘dark’ sector – both interacting with each other via another, unseen force.“If true, it's revolutionary,” said Jonathan Feng, professor of physics & astronomy at the University of California, Irvine,...

Try using the entire Earth to hunt for a new fundamental force of nature. So say Larry Hunter of Amherst College in Massachusetts, and colleagues. They have created a map of the spins of electrons deep within the Earth's mantle, which could be used to reveal the as-yet-unseen force as well as the strange particles – known as "unparticles" – that might carry it. We currently know of four fundamental forces: gravity, electromagnetism and the strong and weak nuclear forces. The hypothetical fifth force can be thought of as a version of magnetism that does not weaken as quickly with...