The nucleus of an atom is made up of protons and (aside from most hydrogen) neutrons.The number of protons defines what element it is: 8 for oxygen, 26 for iron, and 79 for gold.However, the ...

A stable isotope will never spontaneously change into a different element, which is what happens to radioactive isotopes.

These findings confirmed that atomic nuclei can decay by losing individual protons, not just clusters like alpha particles.

A research team led by Chinese scientists has synthesized a novel, extremely neutron-deficient isotope, protactinium-210, for the first time, laying the foundation for new element synthesis ...

A few hundred seconds after the great event, say Alpher & Herman, when the universe was filled with a gas made of protons, neutrons and smaller sub-atomic particles, its temperature was about i ...

A stable isotope will never spontaneously change into a different element, which is what happens to radioactive isotopes.

For example, the element tin has a magic number of protons. Tin always has 50 protons, and its most common isotope has 70 neutrons. Isotopes are atoms of the same element that have a different number ...

A stable isotope will never spontaneously change into a different element, which is what happens to radioactive isotopes. Helium, with two protons and two neutrons, is the lightest “doubly magic ...