Smile, protons, you're on camera

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Image of tracks of two protons emitted in the decay of iron-45 research appearing in the journal Physical Review Letters the week of Nov. 5 2007 represents the first-ever description of the angular correlation between these protons. Credit: Marek Pfu ...
Image of tracks of two protons emitted in the decay of iron-45; research appearing in the journal Physical Review Letters the week of Nov. 5, 2007, represents the first-ever description of the angular correlation between these protons. Credit: Marek Pfutzner, Warsaw University

Radioactivity, discovered more than 100 years ago and studied by physicists ever since, would seem to be a relatively closed subject in science. However, since the 1960s, the pursuit of at least one open question about how nuclei spontaneously eject various particles has continued to nag experimentalists, largely because of an inability to make precise measurements of fleeting, exotic nuclei.


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All News summaries from Physics news
All News summaries for November 08, 2007

The Lightness of Electrons in a Twisting Metal Crystal

6 hours ago | User rating: not rated yet
(PhysOrg.com) -- A team of researchers at Princeton University's Materials Research Science and Engineering Center has observed electrons moving through a crystal of bismuth metal behaving like light.

Proposed Particle Help Explains Odd Galactic Photons

11 hours ago | User rating: not rated yet
In 2002, a satellite called INTEGRAL was launched by the European Space Agency with an instrument on board to detect and measure gamma rays from space. Four years later, it yielded some intriguing data: An unusually high ...

Electron microscopy enters the picometer scale

Jul 24, 2008 | User rating: not rated yet
Jülich scientists have succeeded in precisely measuring atomic spacings down to a few picometres using new methods in ultrahigh-resolution electron microscopy. This makes it possible to find out decisive parameters ...

Revolutionary materials reflect ancient forms

Jul 24, 2008 | User rating: not rated yet
(PhysOrg.com) -- Although order is pleasing to the eye, it can quickly become boring. In Islamic architecture therefore, decoration often follows a strict yet aperiodic pattern. Similar structures also form ...

Shielding for ambitious neutron experiment

Jul 24, 2008 | User rating: not rated yet
In science fiction stories it is either the inexhaustible energy source of the future or a superweapon of galactic magnitude: antimaterial. In fact, antimaterial can neither be found on Earth nor in space, is extremely complex ...