nuclear science division Archives

6 new isotopes of the superheavy elements discovered

Berkeley, CA — A team of scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has detected six isotopes, never seen before, of the superheavy elements 104 through 114. Starting with the creation of a new isotope of th…

Putting a spin on light and atoms

Magnetometers come in many shapes and sizes — an ordinary hand-held compass is the simplest — but alkali-vapor magnetometers are extrasensitive devices that measure magnetic fields using light and atoms. They can detect archaeological remain…