Does the Fermilab result from last week wreck Physics as we know it?!?!?

 Some people have been asking me if the recent results published at Fermilab (outside of Chicago) about a certain property of a particle called a muon wrecks physics! This result made it to the mainstream press because of the fact that the measured magnetic properties of muons is a little bit different than what a theory called the Standard Model predicts. The difference is significantly different from the theoretical prediction, meaning the difference is statistically strong enough to qualify as a 'discovery' in the science world. 

If this difference really is true, then it likely is an indication of 'new physics.' The most likely candidate would be some type of new particle never thought of and outside of the Standard Model (which is well tested since the 1960s). 

However, like most things in science when there is potentially a major discovery, everyone should be skeptical and try to pick apart this experiment (to be sure they did things correctly), as well as the theoretical calculations the experiment is being compared to. Some recent work by theorists have suggested that the calculation may need to be refined - and that after this revision, perhaps the difference will go away and theory and experiment may be consistent with each other once again! 

This is hard stuff!! Some of the hardest math around is used in the theory, and the values being worked at are so precise (basically meaning there's so many decimal points) that tiny differences in a calculation may move some of those decimal values a tiny bit, but push it within the error bars of the experiment). Like most things in science, we must be patient and let the process proceed over the coming months.