The team made two atoms of element 116, livermorium, during 22 days of operations at the lab's heavy-ion accelerator, the 88-Inch Cyclotron. Making an atom of element 120 would be even rarer, but ...

The word magic is not often used in the context of science. But in the early 1930s, scientists discovered that some atomic nuclei—the center part of atoms, which make up all matter—were more stable ...

At the far end of the periodic table is a realm where nothing is quite as it should be. The elements here, starting at atomic number 104 (rutherfordium), have never been found in nature. In fact, they ...

At the start of the new year, nuclear chemists Hiromitsu Haba and Kouji Morimoto slide precisely 119 Japanese yen into the collection box at their local shrine. They are seeking good fortune in their ...

This episode is from WHRO’s Spotlight Earth series. Watch this video to learn about matter. In this Spotlight Earth episode, you will explore the fundamental building blocks of the universe, including ...

Inverse reports that scientists have recorded video of atoms bonding and separating for the very first time. The research team used transmission electron microscopy in collaboration with the SALVE ...

Three studies have demonstrated the cooling and trapping of single strontium and ytterbium atoms in two-dimensional arrays. Such arrays could lead to advances in atomic-clock technology and in quantum ...

This story appears in the May 2013 issue of National Geographic magazine. Last October 22, at 9:29 a.m., a bell rang in the main office of Yuri Oganessian’s lab in Dubna, north of Moscow. In a cramped ...

Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) are credited in the discovery of 16 of the 118 known elements. Now they’ve completed the crucial first ...