Neutron-rich nuclei reveal how heavy elements form

Models for how heavy elements are produced within stars have become more accurate thanks to measurements by RIKEN nuclear physicists of the probabilities that 20 neutron-rich nuclei will shed neutrons.

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Physics model could optimize basketball player positioning

A physics theory that's proven useful to predict the crowd behavior of molecules and fruit flies also seems to work in a very different context—a basketball court.

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A surprising way to trap a microparticle

When physicists recently steered a tiny microparticle toward a cylindrical obstacle, they expected one of two outcomes to occur. The particle would either collide into the obstacle or sail around it. The particle, however, did neither.

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Researchers searching for decay of nature's rarest isotope announce initial measurements

On Feb. 23, researchers announced initial measurements from an experiment searching for the decay of metastable isomer tantalum-180. The measurements were based on the first 229 days of data-taking from the experiment located nearly a mile underground at the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) in Lead, South Dakota.

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Laser shots could spark additional discoveries in astrophysics

In December, the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory made headlines worldwide. Scientists at the NIF performed the first nuclear fusion experiment in which the energy produced from fusion exceeded the amount of energy directly applied to the fuel to ignite it. This first-of-its-kind result will provide invaluable insight into the potential for clean energy from fusion.

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LHCb begins using unique approach to process collision data in real-time

Current technology does not allow all Large Hadron Collider (LHC) proton–proton collision data to be stored and analyzed. It is therefore necessary to filter out the data according to the scientific goals of each experiment. Physicists call this selection process the "trigger."

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The final results of the Majorana collaboration's search for neutrinoless double-beta decay

For more than half a decade, the Majorana Collaboration, a large consortium of researchers from different universities worldwide, have been trying to observe neutrinoless double-beta decay, one of the rarest forms of radioactive decay. This was done using the Majorana Demonstrator, a detector located at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in South Dakota, a laboratory that is almost 1 mile underground.

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