Some atoms are stable, while others seem to fall apart. Lead-208 will probably last forever, while the synthetic isotope technetium-99 exists for just hours. The difference lies in the structure of ...

For decades, nuclear physicists believed that "Islands of Inversion"—regions where the normal rules of nuclear structure suddenly break down—were found mostly in neutron-rich isotopes. In these ...

Physicists have found a new “island of inversion” in the nucleus of molybdenum-84, a perfectly balanced atom with equal numbers of protons and neutrons. The discovery upends a decades-old assumption ...

Physicists working with molybdenum-84, a nucleus containing exactly 42 protons and 42 neutrons, have found that this seemingly balanced atom defies one of nuclear physics’ longest-standing ...

An international team of researchers has systematically measured the β-decay half-lives of 40 nuclei near calcium-54, providing key experimental data for understanding the structure of extremely ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. The photo shows the setup on the general-purpose beamline in the ReA6 vault at Michigan State University's National ...