Advanced materials with more novel properties are almost always developed by adding more elements to the list of ingredients. But quantum research suggests some simpler materials might already have ...

In an environment packed with excess energy (like a supernova), a small fraction of this energy may be used to bind free neutrons to iron atoms. One of the neutrons in the nucleus decays (or changes) ...

There are some 90+ elements of the periodic table that occur naturally in the Universe, but of them all, iron is the most stable. If you fuse lighter elements together to get closer to iron, you gain ...

The experimental campaign on the neutron generation at Apollon: The inside of the target chamber showing the off-axis parabola and some diagnostics. (Courtesy: Julien Fuchs) An astrophysical process ...

Heavy duty A high-energy photonic jet (white and blue) blasts through a collapsing star with a black hole at its centre. The cocoon where free neutrons may be available for the r-process is shown in ...

Since the invention of the periodic table 150 years ago this month, scientists have worked to fill in the rows of elements and make sense of their properties. But researchers have also pursued a ...

Scientists now understand that the universe forges its heaviest elements, including californium, through extreme cosmic events like neutron star mergers. These cataclysmic collisions provide the ...