
Physics
Explainer: Radiation and radioactive decay
Like clockwork, radioactive forms of some elements shed parts of themselves as they attempt to become nonradioactive.
By Janet Raloff
Come explore with us!
Like clockwork, radioactive forms of some elements shed parts of themselves as they attempt to become nonradioactive.
A craterlike structure found off the coast of West Africa might have been formed by an asteroid that struck around the time dinosaurs went extinct.
Zinc levels in shark teeth hint that megalodons and great whites competed for food — and great whites won.
These positively charged particles are important building blocks in atoms.
Chemical hints observed in zircons suggest when the important process of plate tectonics first took off.
This word can refer to rotting flesh or the transformation of radioactive atoms.
Tiny bdelloid rotifers awake from a 24,000-year slumber when freed from the Arctic permafrost.
More precise clocks could improve technologies such as GPS and help scientists test major ideas in science.
Traces left by nuclear-bomb testing in the 1950s and ‘60s can help researchers learn how old a whale shark is.
Long, long ago, in a galaxy far, far away, a black hole blasted out 100 billion times as much energy as our sun ever will. One word for that: Wow!