Why do some elements decay in minutes, while others last billions of years? Certain "magic numbers" of nuclear particles may ...

Physicists in Japan have blasted out the heaviest calcium nuclei ever seen—each containing the 20 protons needed to make the element, but with a huge number—40—of neutrons. That's twice as many ...

Researchers have discovered eight new rare isotopes of the elements phosphorus, sulfur, chlorine, argon, potassium, scandium and, most importantly, calcium. These are the heaviest isotopes of these ...

Researchers from Michigan State University and the RIKEN Nishina Center in Japan discovered eight new rare isotopes of the elements phosphorus, sulfur, chlorine, argon, potassium, scandium and, most ...

Scientists have shown that 34 is a ''magic number'' for neutrons, meaning that atomic nuclei with 34 neutrons are more stable than would normally be expected. Earlier experiments had suggested, but ...

Physicists may have found a new “magic number” — a quantity of protons or neutrons that gives an atomic nucleus unusual stability. The most common magic numbers are two, eight, 20, 28, 50, 82 and 126; ...

The word magic is not often used in the context of science. But in the early 1930s, scientists discovered that some atomic ...

A chart of superheavy elements (SHEs), plotted by atomic number (protons) vs number of neutrons. Boxes are discovered SHEs, with predicted half-lives. The circle is an island of stability. Credit: ...

How Many Neutrons Can You Cram Into an Atom? | RealClearSciencePhysicists in Japan have blasted out the heaviest calcium nuclei ever seen—each containing the 20 protons needed to make the element, but ...

An international collaboration led by scientists from the University of Hong Kong, RIKEN (Japan), and CEA (France) have used the RI Beam Factory (RIBF) at the RIKEN Nishina Center for Accelerator-base ...