To understand nuclear decay equations. How to measure the activity of radioactive sources. Spontaneously means that the process of radioactive decay can not be speeded up or slowed down by physical ...

Radioactive decay is the strange and almost mystical ability for one element to naturally and spontaneously transmute into another. In the process, those elements tend to emit deadly forms of ...

Enter the fascinating realm of Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences (HSNS), a journal that chronicles the history of science as it has developed since the 18th century. HSNS explores a vast ...

In this video excerpt from NOVA's "Hunting the Elements," New York Times technology columnist David Pogue explores how isotopes of carbon can be used to determine the age of once-living matter. Learn ...

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 ...

Half of the extraordinary heat of the Earth that erupts on its surface volcanically and drives the titanic motions of the continents is due to radioactivity, scientists find. This new discovery shows ...

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 ...

Scientists poke and prod at the fringes of habitability in pursuit of life’s limits. To that end, they have tunneled kilometers below Earth’s surface, drilling outward from the bottom of mine shafts ...

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 ...

The European Space Agency’s (ESA) INTEGRAL space observatory has made the first direct detection of radioactive titanium associated with supernova remnant 1987A. The radioactive decay likely has been ...