On the road to two-proton radioactivity
Radioactivity is the transformation of an atomic nucleus by one of several mechanisms. Henry Becquerel observed alpha particles: helium-4 clusters consisting of two protons and two neutrons ejected fr...
US science awards recognize physics
The US Government makes another presentation next week with the National Medal of Science awards on 1 December. Physicists Willis Lamb and Jeremiah Ostriker receive the medal. Lamb, of the University ...
Physicists discover new kind of radioactivity
Galindo-Uribarri and co-workers chose an isotope of neon with an energy structure that prevents it from emitting protons one at a time. This means that the two protons are certainly ejected simultaneo...
Exciting times for heavy nuclei
The researchers at the French GANIL accelerator studied heavy, highly charged ions, in which the attraction between the nucleus and the remaining electrons is extremely strong. As a result, the differ...
Promising new materials for better nuclear waste storage
The so-called ‘complex oxides’ are a group of ceramics with a common chemical formula consisting of two pairs of metallic cations and seven oxygen atoms. Sickafus and co-workers at Los Ala...
Sir Mark Oliphant dies
Oliphant was born in Adelaide in 1901 and attended the local university before going to Cambridge University in 1927, where he worked on nuclear physics experiments with Ernest Rutherford. In 1937 he ...
Nuclei show their soft side
Helium-6 is a typical neutron-skin nucleus, with two of the neutrons forming a “skin” around the alpha-particle core. Different types of dynamics are possible in such nuclei. In the soft d...
The many shapes of lead-186
Mark Huyse from the University of Leuven in Belgium and co-workers in Germany, Slovakia, the UK, Finland, Russia, Sweden and Belgium studied lead-186, which contains 82 protons and 104 neutrons. 82 is...
Nuclear treaty review starts in New York
The New York conference is intended to specify a timetable for all the main nuclear powers – China, France, Russia, the UK and the US – to abandon their nuclear weapon stockpiles. Delegate...
Physicist queries test-ban evidence to US Senate
Since the US stopped testing in 1992 it has relied on the “stockpile Stewardship” programme to maintain the reliability and safety of its nuclear weapons. But a number of misconceptions we...
