Alpha recoil: Conceptual drawing of the experiment, which detects the nuclear decay of individual helium nuclei by embedding radioactive atoms in a micron-sized object and measuring the object’s ...

Chemists have found a way to package some of nature's most powerful radioactive particles inside carbon nanotubes. Alpha-particle radiation is so powerful that cancer cells can be destroyed with just ...

Remarkably, even though radioactivity is a threat to life, scientists can control and use it to diagnose and treat diseases – ...

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 ...

Nuclear decay and fusion dynamics constitute central pillars in modern nuclear physics, with implications ranging from energy production and astrophysical phenomena to the synthesis of novel elements.

Researchers have observed a rare nuclear decay. Namely, the team measured low-kinetic-energy protons emitted after the beta decay of a neutron-rich nucleus beryllium-11. Researchers from the National ...

Deep under a mountain in Italy, researchers continue to push the boundaries of science with an experiment that could rewrite ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I write about physics, science, academia, and pop culture. In December, 1930, a group of physicists convened a meeting in Tübingen ...

Powering spacecraft with solar energy may not seem like a challenge, given how intense the Sun’s light can feel on Earth. Spacecraft near the Earth use large solar panels to harness the Sun for the ...

Since the discovery of radioactivity in the 19th century, humanity has been forced to reckon with an uncomfortable but sobering truth: much of the matter we find today will eventually decay away. This ...

Uranium was discovered in 1789 by Martin Klaproth, a German chemist. It is a radioactive element found naturally in the environment in very small amounts — scientists call these trace amounts — in ...