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This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science podcast. I'm Clara Moskowitz.

There are probably many more particles out there in the universe than the ones we know about,

and today physicists got a hint about where they might be hiding. The finding comes from an

experiment at Fermi Lab called Muon G-2, which looks at particles called Muons that are heavier

cousins of electrons. It turns out there spins wobble more than the standard laws of physics,

say they should. Here to tell us all about it is David Herzog of the University of Washington,

one of the physicists on the experiment. By the way, this segment is on the longer side,

dear listener, but hey, this is complicated physics. David, thanks for being here.

Thanks, Clara. This is a really exciting time for us.

Okay, let's get grounded. Why are Muons important?

Well, since the discovery of the Muon, it's played actually a rather unique and versatile role in

subatomic physics. The topics that people use Muons for range from fundamental constants of nature,

basic symmetries, weak nucleon, and nuclear interactions. And for us, what we care about the most

is standard model tests and searches for new physics. That's what we're going to do with them.

Now, the Muon is an unstable particle. It only lives for about two microseconds,

but that's sufficiently long to precisely study its properties, and yet it's actually

...