--- title: CERN New Fundamental Particle: Research Hints at Possibility description: Tests may have uncovered what researchers said Tuesday may be a new fundamental particle of nature similar to the Higgs Boson. canonical: https://time.com/4151383/cern-fundamental-particle/ author: Justin Worland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-12-16T21:39:27.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:00:44.567Z article:section: Science og:title: CERN New Fundamental Particle: Research Hints at Possibility og:description: Tests may have uncovered what researchers said Tuesday may be a new fundamental particle of nature similar to the Higgs Boson. og:url: https://time.com/4151383/cern-fundamental-particle/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt604c98b3d2f0b6e2/698875bf196cf459b0039811/cern-hadron-collider.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: CERN hadron collider og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: CERN New Fundamental Particle: Research Hints at Possibility twitter:description: Tests may have uncovered what researchers said Tuesday may be a new fundamental particle of nature similar to the Higgs Boson. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt604c98b3d2f0b6e2/698875bf196cf459b0039811/cern-hadron-collider.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This New Particle Has Physicists Very Excited—If It's Real  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Dec 16, 2015 9:39 PM UTC  A woman looking at Large Hadron Collider, Geneva, Switzerland A woman looking at Large Hadron Collider, Geneva, SwitzerlandFrans Lanting—Getty Images/Mint Images RM  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Dec 16, 2015 9:39 PM UTC Tests conducted in Switzerland may have uncovered what researchers say could be a new fundamental particle of nature similar to the Higgs Boson. Photons that emerged from tests conducted by two different research teams at CERN—the European Organization for Nuclear Research—carried about 750 billion electron volts of energy, potentially the result of radioactive decay of a new fundamental particle. If confirmed, the discovery of such a particle could have significant implications for the understanding of particle physics. Some physicists have suggested that the particle could be a graviton, a theoretical particle of gravitational energy that has not yet been proven to exist. A more likely theory is that a new particle is a heavier cousin of the Higgs Boson, a particle thought to give other particles mass whose discovery in 2013 confirmed decades of research. **Read More**: [You Should Care Big Time About the Big Bang News](http://time.com/27891/big-bang-theory-inflationary-universe/) But researchers note that the testing remains far from conclusive and that the discovery could very well be a coincidence. The result falls far short of the five-sigma confidence level—considered the gold standard in science, when there’s only a 1-in-3.5-million chance of something occurring coincidentally. Indeed, researchers said they wouldn’t have announced the findings at all had they not been uncovered at the same time by two separate teams. “I don’t think there is anyone around who thinks this is conclusive,” New York University physicist Kyle Cranmer, also a CERN researcher, [told the New York _Times_](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/16/science/physicists-in-europe-find-tantalizing-hints-of-a-mysterious-new-particle.html). “But it would be huge if true.” ### See the Top 20 Winners of Nikon Small World Microscopic Photography Contest  Eye of a honey bee (Apis mellifera) covered in dandelion pollen at 120x magnification. Ralph Claus Grimm  Mouse colon colonized with human microbiota at 63x magnification. Kristen Earle, Gabriel Billings, KC Huang and Justin Sonnenburg  Intake of a humped bladderwort (Utricularia gibba), a freshwater carnivorous plant at 100x magnification. Dr. Igor Siwanowicz  Lab-grown human mammary gland organoid at 100x magnification. Daniel H. Miller and Ethan S. Sokol  Live imaging of perfused vasculature in a mouse brain with glioblastoma taken using the Optical Frequency Domain Imaging System. Dr. Giorgio Seano and Dr. Rakesh K. Jain  Spore capsule of a moss (Bryum sp.) Henri Koskinen  Starfish imaged using confocal microscopy at 10x magnification. Evan Darling  Nerves and blood vessels in a mouse ear skin at 10x magnification. Dr. Tomoko Yamazaki  Young buds of Arabidopsis (a flowering plant) at 40x magnification. Dr. Nathanael Prunet  Clam shrimp (Cyzicus mexicanus), live specimen ,at 25x magnification. Ian Gardiner  Fern sorus at varying levels of maturity at 20x magnification. Rogelio Moreno Gill  Developing sea mullet (Mugil cephalus) embryos at 40x magnification. Hannah Sheppard-Brennand  Tentacles of a carnivorous plant (Drosera sp.) at 20x magnification. Jose R. Almodovar  Australian grass (Austrostipa nodosa) seed at 5x magnification. Viktor Sykora  Anther of a flowering plant (Arabidopsis thaliana) at 20x magnification. Dr. Heiti Paves  Feeding rotifers (Floscularia ringens) at 50x magnification. Charles Krebs  Black witch-hazel (Trichodactylus crinitus) leaf producing crystals to defend against herbivores at 100x magnification. David Maitland  Hairyback worm (Chaetonotus sp.) and algae (Micrasterias sp.) at 400x magnification. Roland Gross  Planktonic larva of a horseshoe worm (phoronid) at 450x magnification. Dr. Richard R. Kirby  Suction cups on the diving beetle (Dytiscus sp.) foreleg at 50x magnification. 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