Nuclear physics news, articles and features | New Scientist

A mathematical equivalent of a microscope with variable resolution has shed light on why some atoms are exceptionally stable, a riddle that has persisted in nuclear physics for decades

President Donald Trump appears to have ordered a return to nuclear testing after decades of uneasy but effective treaties banning the practice – but will it actually happen?

In an unprecedentedly precise accelerator experiment, researchers directly observed how some of the heaviest known elements react and form molecules

A new design for a nuclear battery that generates electricity from the radioactive decay of americium is unprecedentedly efficient

A method that helped create two atoms of the rare, super-heavy element livermorium may pave the way towards making the hypothetical element 120

The author and Pulitzer prize finalist, who has written the latest pick for the New Scientist Book Club, Nuclear War: A scenario, on the "shocking truths" about a nuclear attack

In this terrifying extract from Annie Jacobsen’s Nuclear War: A Scenario, the author lays out what would happen in the first seconds after a nuclear missile hits the Pentagon

An unprecedentedly heavy version of oxygen is significantly less stable than expected, which suggests a problem our understanding of the nuclear strong force

Physicists have measured the "neutron skin" of an atom for the first time, and perhaps unsurprisingly, it is extremely thin. The measurement may help us understand the properties of neutron stars

A team of physicists in China has produced the lightest uranium atom ever, which is more than 10 per cent smaller than the most common type of uranium