Physicists have, for the first time ever, successfully compressed an unstable nucleus, Nickel 56. This nucleus is not found on Earth but is present when a star explodes at the end of its life ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. The Universe is out there, waiting for you to discover it. Our Universe is old: 13.8 billion years old, to be precise. Many of the ...

The nuclei of certain atoms are stable and under ordinary circumstances, stable nuclei do not undergo change. The nuclei of other atoms are unstable. These nuclei undergo change spontaneously, that is ...

Nobel Prize-winning physicist Frank Wilczek explores the secrets of the cosmos. Read previous columns here. In 1935, the physicist Erwin Schrödinger invented a thought-experiment to test whether ...

Alpha decay represents a fundamental mode of radioactive disintegration wherein an unstable nucleus emits an alpha particle—a tightly bound cluster of two protons and two neutrons. This process not ...

A research team at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) is the first ever to observe a beta-delayed neutron emission ...

Scientists may have reached a new level of understanding when it comes to the question of how heavy metallic elements originated, thanks to an isotope of tin. By bombarding tin-132 with neutrons, ...

An international team of physicists has found strong evidence for the existence of a new ‘doubly magic’ nucleus with an unconventional configuration of neutrons. The oxygen–24 nucleus is also the ...

Physicists, who dedicate their lives to studying the topic, don’t actually seem to like physics very much since they’re always hoping it’s broken. But we’ll have to forgive them; finding out that a ...