Remarkably, even though radioactivity is a threat to life, scientists can control and use it to diagnose and treat diseases – including cancers. If the radiation is delivered precisely to where cancer ...

Stars exploding as supernovae are the main sources of heavy chemical elements in the Universe. In particular, radioactive atomic nuclei are synthesized in the hot, innermost regions during the ...

The amount of long-lived radioactive elements incorporated into a rocky planet as it forms may be a crucial factor in determining its future habitability. That's because internal heating from the ...

A new study identifies internal heating from radioactive decay as a critical factor in a planet’s ability to generate a magnetic field and retain an atmosphere. Credit: Illustration by Melissa Weiss ...

Hickory dickory dock, this nucleus could make a great clock. A special variety of the element thorium hosts an atomic nucleus that could be used to keep time, scientists say. In a first, researchers ...

For the first time, researchers have directly observed an exotic type of radioactive decay called two-neutrino double electron capture. The decay, seen in xenon-124 atoms, happens so sparingly that it ...

Radioactive material gets a bad rap, what with radiation and fallout and nuclear waste and all. But it offers some practical uses. One of the coolest (OK, maybe the coolest) is using radioactive ...

Take a look at the first column of the periodic table. The elements in this group include some of the most common and useful ones on the planet - and they probably all wish they weren’t associated ...

The Standard Model of physics, which explains the properties and interactions of the fundamental particles, does a phenomenal job with the things it gets right, and there's nothing that it obviously ...

All the matter we know of in our Universe is made of both fundamental and composite particles. However, only a few of the fundamental particles are observed to be stable and not to decay into other ...

Naturally occurring superheavy elements beyond those listed in the periodic table could potentially explain why asteroid 33 Polyhymnia is so dense, new research suggests. When you purchase through ...