Observations of the formation of light-nuclei from high-energy collisions may help in the hunt for dark matter.

In 2008, a team of UCLA-led scientists proposed a scheme to use a laser to excite the nucleus of thorium atoms to realize extremely accurate, portable clocks. Last year, they realized this ...

The time is nigh for nuclear clocks. In a first, scientists have used a tabletop laser to bump an atomic nucleus into a higher energy state. It’s a feat that sets scientists on a path toward creating ...

UT researchers have made rare measurements of exotic nuclear decay that reshape how scientists think heavy elements form in extreme cosmic events. You can’t have gold without the decay of an atomic ...

The nucleus of an atom is now the modern version of sand flowing through an hourglass. Researchers have spent 15 years trying to increase accuracy in timekeeping. The U.S. standard currently relies on ...

Atomic clocks are the most accurate timekeepers we have, losing only seconds across billions of years. But apparently that’s not accurate enough – nuclear clocks could steal their thunder, speeding up ...

Nobel laureate Otto Hahn is credited with the discovery of nuclear fission. Fission is one of the most important discoveries of the 20th century, yet Hahn considered something else to be his best ...

Atomic clocks. They almost sound like something out of science fiction, or an experiment confined to some elite physics lab, but in reality, they’ve been around since the 1950s in one form or another.