Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
In 2001, a 50-foot ring at Brookhaven National Laboratory measured the muon's magnetism to 13 parts per million — and got a number the Standard Model couldn't explain. The result was strong enough to almost win a Nobel Prize, and it launched a 25-year hunt that ended at Fermilab.
Brookhaven's 2001 muon g-2 result hit 3.7 sigma — high enough to keep the entire physics community up at night, low enough that nobody could claim new physics yet.
We cover: why the muon behaves like a tiny bar magnet, what virtual particles in the vacuum do to its spin, and how a 5,150-kilometer barge trip decided the answer.
Full episode: youtu.be/bR8gKoG3tng
Footage courtesy of Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory/DOE.
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In 2001, a 50-foot ring at Brookhaven National Laboratory measured the muon's magnetism to 13 parts per million — and got a number the Standard Model couldn't explain. The result was strong enough to almost win a Nobel Prize, and it launched a 25-year hunt that ended at Fermilab.
Brookhaven's 2001 muon g-2 result hit 3.7 sigma — high enough to keep the entire physics community up at night, low enough that nobody could claim new physics yet.
We cover: why the muon behaves like a tiny bar magnet, what virtual particles in the vacuum do to its spin, and how a 5,150-kilometer barge trip decided the answer.
Full episode: youtu.be/bR8gKoG3tng
Footage courtesy of Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory/DOE.
———
📬 Get the transcript, fascinating bonus content, and my Monday M.A.G.I.C. Message: briankeating.com/yt
🌠 Have a .edu email and live in the USA 🇺🇸? You automatically win a meteorite: BrianKeating.com/edu
🔔 Subscribe: youtube.com/DrBrianKeating?sub_confirmation=1
🎯 Support Into the Impossible on Patreon — get my weekly M.A.G.I.C. Message, unfiltered bonus content, and live monthly Office Hours with me: patreon.com/drbriankeating
⭐ Join this channel for perks, monthly Office Hours, and your name in the Member Roster at the end of every episode:
youtube.com/channel/UCmXH_moPhfkqCk6S3b9RWuw/join
📚 My books:
Losing the Nobel Prize (memoir): amzn.to/2sa5UpA
Think Like a Nobel Prize Winner: https://a.co/d/03ezQFu
Focus Like a Nobel Prize Winner: https://a.co/d/hi50U9U
Galileo's Dialogue (first-ever audiobook): https://a.co/d/iZPi9Un
🌐 More:
🏄♂️ Twitter: twitter.com/BrianKeating
📚 Substack briankeating.substack.com/ss
✍️ Blog: briankeating.com/blog
🎙️ Audio-only: briankeating.com/podcast
#intotheimpossible #briankeating #science #physics #astronomy #cosmology #podcast #universe
