Where does the periodic table of chemical elements end and which processes lead to the existence of heavy elements? Researchers report on experiments to come closer to an answer. They gained insight ...

Since the atomic nucleus was first proposed in 1911, physicists simply assumed it was round. But are the nuclei of atoms really round? Intuitively this shape makes sense and physicists believed it ...

Smashing uranium-238 ions together proves to be a reliable way of imaging their nuclei. High-energy collision experiments reveal nuclear shapes that are strongly elongated and have no symmetry around ...

Researchers have found that titanium-48 changes from a shell model structure to an alpha-cluster structure depending on the distance from the center of the nucleus. The results upend the conventional ...

A five-dimensional model accurately predicts the asymmetric fission of mercury isotopes, advancing our understanding of nuclear fission beyond traditional heavy elements such as uranium and plutonium ...

Physicists have been hoping for this moment for a long time: For many years, scientists all around the world have been searching for a very specific state of thorium atomic nuclei that promises ...

A team of researchers at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) at Michigan State University (MSU) has discovered that cobalt-70 isotopes form different nuclear shapes when their energy levels ...

I read with great interest the article by Katherine Bourzac “Divining the Mysteries of the Atomic Nucleus” in the Jan. 29, 2024, issue of C&EN (page 30). Curious readers might like to know that an ...

Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden carried out nuclear fission reactions in 100 different types of exotic nuclei of elements like platinum, mercury, and lead in a bid to ...

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Where does the periodic table of chemical elements end and which processes lead to the existence of heavy elements? An international research team reports on experiments performed at the GSI/FAIR ...