Physicists have discovered a surprising new “Island of Inversion” in a place no one expected: among nuclei where the number ...

A new experiment using rare-isotope beams has provided new insight into the origin of proton-rich isotopes known as p-nuclei.

Scientists are exploring a new type of optical atomic clock based on ytterbium-173 ions that could help define the future standard for measuring time.

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 ...

A research team is using astrophysical explosions to understand the mysterious forces at work in some of the smallest ...

Nuclear isomers are crucial probes for studying the structure of nuclei. Unlike chemical isomers—which have the same chemical formula but different arrangements of atoms—nuclear isomers are nuclei ...

The time is nigh for nuclear clocks. In a first, scientists have used a tabletop laser to bump an atomic nucleus into a higher energy state. It’s a feat that sets scientists on a path toward creating ...

The nucleus of an atom is now the modern version of sand flowing through an hourglass. Researchers have spent 15 years trying to increase accuracy in timekeeping. The U.S. standard currently relies on ...

Atomic clocks are the most accurate timekeepers we have, losing only seconds across billions of years. But apparently that’s not accurate enough – nuclear clocks could steal their thunder, speeding up ...

Atomic, molecular and optical (AMO) physics explores the quantum behaviour of electrons, atoms and light, and their mutual interactions across energy, length and time scales. In atoms and molecules, ...

In 1939, German scientists Otto Hahn (later a Nobel laureate in Chemistry) and Fritz Strassmann discovered the effect of ...

Years before Robert Oppenheimer led the Los Alamos lab that developed the first nuclear weapons, physicists in D.C. thrust the world into the atomic age — inside a narrow, zigzagging tunnel running ...