These 2018 findings could be big news — if they turn out to be true
Some buzzworthy scientific discoveries need more evidence
Here’s our short list of discoveries reported in 2018 that could shake up science, if they hold up.
Not so standard
Dangling from a helium balloon high above Antarctica, the ANITA detector spied two odd signals that hint at the existence of new subatomic particles. Such extremely energetic particles, if they exist, could upend the standard model, the theory that describes the elementary particles that make up matter (SN: 10/27/18, p. 8). Some physicists caution that the signals could have come from something more mundane, such as spacefaring particles called cosmic rays.