Gear-obsessed editors choose every product we review. We may earn commission if you buy from a link. Why Trust Us? Fundamental particles fall within two camps—fermions or bosons—but a new study suggests that hypothetical paraparticles could exist in a kind of inbetween. Although technically quasiparticles, this mathematical proof of principle reexamines the foundational idea that forms the very periodic table. For now, these paraparticles have only been described in one and two dimensions, but nothing rules out their appearance in nature, though with what frequency remains uncertain. Understanding the ins and outs of the subatomic world is a confusing process, but there are moments of surprising simplicity. For example, all fundamental particles (that we know of) can be naturally divided into two categories: fermions and bosons. Fermions contain all the particles of matter (i.e. quarks and leptons) and are characterized by their half-integer spin values whereas bosons are all force carriers—gluons, w and z bosons, photons, and of course, the Higgs boson—and have spin values in whole integers, so 0 or 1 (or possibly 2 if gravitons exist). These different properties mean fermions and bosons also behave differently. Don Lincon, a senior scientist at the U.S. particle physics laboratory Fermilab, describes bosons as "puppies of the subatomic…