Electron Shell

The Japan-led XRISM (X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission) observatory has captured the most detailed portrait yet of gases flowing within Cygnus X-3, one of the most studied sources in the X-ray sky. Cygnus X-3 is a binary that pairs a rare type of high-mass star with a compact companion — likely a black hole. "The […]

Nuclear clocks will be the most precise clocks in the world. They will lose only one second every 300 billion years—and someday they might fit in your pocket.

The U.S. is ramping up construction of new "plutonium pits" for nuclear weapons

Superatomic molecules containing noble metal elements like gold and silver are studied for their potential in the synthesis of superatomic materials. However, the understanding of silver-based superatomic molecules has been limited. Addressing this gap, researchers from Japan studied two bimetallic superatomic molecules with silver as a main constituent to determine the key factors that enabled their formation.…

These ticking machines pop up time and again in science fiction, but they're very much real.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers used the nation's fastest supercomputer to map the molecular vibrations of an important but little-studied uranium compound produced during the nuclear fuel cycle for results that could lead to a cleaner, safer world.

When light hits a material, electrons can be released from this material -- the photoelectric effect. Although this effect played a major role in the development of the quantum theory, it still holds a number of secrets: To date it has not been clear how quickly the electron is released after the photon is absorbed. Researchers have now been able to find an answer to this mystery with the aid of a COLTRIMS reaction…

Physicists at the GSI/FAIR accelerator facility have gained insights into the structure of atomic nuclei of fermium, a synthetic chemical element of the actinoid series with atomic number 100.

Chemicals that contain fluorine have perpetually been in the news for two primary reasons. One is the controversy surrounding the fluoridation of drinking water. The other is the latest chemical scare over fluorinated "forever" chemicals. Fluorine, fluoride, fluorinated. Confusing? You bet. Maybe this will help.

We review the most awe-inspiring and scientifically significant Webb Telescope discoveries.

An interactive Periodic Table of Elements app for the console! - GitHub - spirometaxas/periodic-table-cli: An interactive Periodic Table of Elements app for the console!

Scanning Tunneling Microscopes (STMs) are amazing tools which can manipulate singular atoms, but they cannot characterize these atoms as they act only on the outer electron shell. Meanwhile X-ray spec...

Researchers at the Institute of Modern Physics (IMP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and their collaborators have measured the masses of several key nuclei with high precision by employing the most advanced storage-ring mass spectrometry technique. Using the new data, they investigated X-ray bursts on the surface of a neutron star, setting constraints on the properties of neutron stars from a new…

Cocoa beans can absorb toxic heavy metals such as cadmium from the soil. Some cultivation areas, especially in South America, are polluted with these heavy metals, in some cases considerably. In combining different X-ray fluorescence techniques, a team at BESSY II has now been able to non-invasively measure for the first time where cadmium accumulates exactly in cocoa beans: Mainly in the shell.

And it's faaaaaab-ulous.

After decades of work, physicists have finally broken into the atom to build the first nuclear clock

A novel way of making superheavy elements could soon add a new row to the periodic table, allowing scientists to explore uncharted atomic realms

MIT researchers discovered "neutronic" molecules, in which neutrons can be made to cling to quantum dots, held just by the strong force. The finding may lead to new tools for probing material properties at the quantum level and exploring new kinds of quantum information processing devices.

The element bismuth can "float" between magnets due to magnetic levitation. What's the science behind this phenomenon?

Powerful magnets created with the same metal found in meteorites could revolutionize modern tech