Physicists have found a new “island of inversion” in the nucleus of molybdenum-84, a perfectly balanced atom with equal numbers of protons and neutrons. The discovery upends a decades-old assumption ...

Physicists working with molybdenum-84, a nucleus containing exactly 42 protons and 42 neutrons, have found that this seemingly balanced atom defies one of nuclear physics’ longest-standing ...

Findings in nuclear physics theory have received several Nobel Prizes (1975-nucleus vibrations and rotations, 1963-nuclear shell model, 1949-meson exchange model of nuclear forces). Despite these ...