Sakkmesterke/Alamy
WHY are fundamental physicists so keen聽to undermine the very theories that聽are the bedrock of their success? It is a聽reasonable question to ask confronted with the excitement bubbling around anomalies that seem to be firming up at CERN鈥檚 LHCb experiment.
At stake is a particle that might 鈥 the 鈥渕ight鈥 bears emphasising 鈥 break open the standard model of particle physics, the聽framework that successfully explains three of the four forces of nature.
The answer lies in what the standard model doesn鈥檛 explain: the fourth force, gravity; the dark matter and dark energy that seem to dominate the…



