A new force of nature? The inside story of fresh evidence from Cern that's exciting physicists

This week, the inside story of how scientists working at Cern’s Large Hadron Collider found tantalising new evidence which could mean we have to rethink what we know about the universe. And an update on the situation for Rohingya refugees from Myanmar living in Bangladesh after a deadly fire swept through a refugee camp there. Welcome to episode 9 of The Conversation Weekly, the world explained by experts.

In late March, particle physicists working at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a massive particle accelerator at Cern in Geneva, announced, tentatively, that they’d had a bit of a breakthrough. If what they think they’ve seen is proven correct, it could mean evidence for brand new physics – perhaps even a new force of nature. We get the inside story from Harry Cliff, a particle physicist at the University of Cambridge who works on the LHCb, one of Cern's four giant experiments. And Celine Boehm, professor and head of physics at the University of Sydney, explains the bigger picture of where this all fits into the world of theoretical physics, including the ongoing hunt for dark matter.

In our second story, Rubayat Jesmin, a PhD candidate at Binghamton University in New York explains why the situation got even more precarious situation for hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, after a fire ripped through one of the camps where many were living in Bangladesh.

And Nehal El-Hadi, science and technology editor at The Conversation in Toronto, gives us some recommended reading. 

The Conversation Weekly is produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl.

If you'd like to sign up for The Conversation's free daily newsletter, please subscribe here. To get in touch, find us on Twitter @TC_Audio or on Instagram at theconversationdotcom. Or you can email us on [email protected]. Full credits for this episode can be found here. And a transcript is available here.

Further reading

• Evidence of brand new physics at Cern? Why we’re cautiously optimistic about our new findings, by Harry Cliff, University of Cambridge; Konstantinos Alexandros Petridis, University of Bristol, and Paula Alvarez Cartelle, University of Cambridge
• New physics at the Large Hadron Collider? Scientists are excited, but it’s too soon to be sure, by Sam Baron, Australian Catholic University
• The Standard Model of particle physics: The absolutely amazing theory of almost everything, by Glenn Starkman, Case Western Reserve University
• Without school, a ‘lost generation’ of Rohingya refugee children face uncertain future, by Rubayat Jesmin, Binghamton University, State University of New York
• We know how to cut off the financial valve to Myanmar’s military. The world just needs the resolve to act, by Jonathan Liljeblad, Australian National University
• Resistance to military regime in Myanmar mounts as nurses, bankers join protests – despite bloody crackdown, by Tharaphi Than, Northern Illinois University
• Previously thought to be science fiction, a planet in a triple-star system has been discovered, by Samantha Lawler, University of Regina
• Bursting social bubbles after COVID-19 will make cities happier and healthier again, by Meg Holden, Atiya Mahmood, Ghazaleh Akbarnejad, Lainey Martin and Meghan Winters at Simon Fraser University