The Five forms of matter..

Today scientists recognize mainly four forms of matter- solid, liquid, gas and plasma (which lies at a sort of transition state between energy and matter and exists in stars, etc). Apart from this, energy is also considered a form of matter (or vice-versa) after Einstein proved energy and matter could be interconverted through the famous formula E=mc2.
Hindu texts state that the World is made of five elements (PanchaTatva): Earth (Bhoomi), Water(Jal), Air(Vayu), Fire(Agni) and Sky (Aakash).
Soil, water, air and fire describes the scientific forms of matter - solid, liquid, gas and energy, while the fifth Hindu element - sky - might describe vacuum - nothing but empty space, or even Ether, a hypothesized fluid said to span the entire universe.
Thus the forms of matter are covered in the Panchatatva.

source:-http://www.answers.com/topic/scientific-parallels-in-hindu-mythology