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Explainer: what is an isotope?
Some of the isotopes we find here on Earth were created in supernova explosions like this one.NASAIf you’ve ever studied a periodic table of the elements (see below), you’re probably already aware that...
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Supply of medical isotopes has dangerously decayed
Through the looking glass: nuclear medicine gives us a unique perspective.MyohanTechnetium-99m is the world’s most commonly used medical isotope, used for over 30 million medical diagnostic procedures...
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Australia’s waterbirds are disappearing – but nuclear physics can help save them
Straw-necked ibis gather to breed. Kate Brandis, Author providedWhen wetlands flood they become full of life. They are spectacularly beautiful and noisy. There is nothing quite like the sound of a...
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Fossil teeth reveal new facts about a mass extinction 260 million years ago
A fossil tooth contains isotopes that offer clues of aridification.SuppliedAround 260 million years, the earth was dominated by mammal like reptiles called therapsids. The largest of these therapsids...
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Hunting for rare isotopes: The mysterious radioactive atomic nuclei that will...
Researchers have identified 3,000 radioactive isotopes – and predict 4,000 more are out there.GiroScience/Shutterstock.comWhen you hear the term “radioactive” you likely think “bad news,” maybe along...
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Iran’s nuclear program breaches limits for uranium enrichment: 4 key...
Iranian officials this week revealed that the country’s nuclear program will break the limit for uranium enrichment, set under the terms of the deal struck in 2015 between Iran and world powers...
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How the moon formed – new research
Two planetary bodies colliding.NASA/JPL-Caltech How the Earth got its moon is a long debated question. The giant impact theory– which states that the Moon formed from the a collision between the early...
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Our toxic legacy: bushfires release decades of pollutants absorbed by forests
ShutterstockWe know forests absorb carbon dioxide, but, like a sponge, they also soak up years of pollutants from human activity. When bushfires strike, these pollutants are re-released into the air...
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Teeth of fallen soldiers hold evidence that foreigners fought alongside...
The ruins of the Temple of Victory in Himera, which was constructed to commemorate the first battle in 480 B.C.Katherine Reinberger, CC BY-NDAncient historians loved to write about warfare and famous...
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Strontium isotopes can map monarch butterfly migrations and help conservation...
A monarch butterfly's body can reveal where the caterpillar originated from.(Shutterstock)The eastern North American population of monarch butterflies are famous for their annual, multi-generational,...
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Nuclear fusion hit a milestone thanks to better reactor walls – this...
Magnetic fusion reactors contain super hot plasma in a donut-shaped container called a tokamak.dani3315/iStock via Getty ImagesScientists at a laboratory in England have shattered the record for the...
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Nuclear isomers were discovered 100 years ago, and physicists are still...
Protons and neutrons in an atom's nucleus can be arranged in different configurations, creating nuclear isomers. KTSdesign/SciencePhotoLibrary via Getty ImagesNobel laureate Otto Hahn is credited with...
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Powerful linear accelerator begins smashing atoms – 2 scientists on the team...
A new particle accelerator at Michigan State University is set to discover thousands of never-before-seen isotopes. Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, CC BY-NDJust a few hundred feet from where we are...
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Beavers are the undiscovered engineers of the boreal forest
The beaver lives at the intersection of the aquatic and forest environments, so its presence increases interactions between these two ecosystems.(Shutterstock)While hiking near a river, chances are...
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Ever wonder how your body turns food into fuel? We tracked atoms to find out
ShutterstockInside our bodies at every moment, our cells are orchestrating a complex dance of atoms and molecules that uses energy to create, distribute and deploy the substances on which our lives...
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How a disgruntled scientist looking to prove his food wasn’t fresh discovered...
George De Hevesy working in his lab at Stockholm University in 1944. Keystone Features/Hulton Archive via Getty ImagesEach October, the Nobel Prizes celebrate a handful of groundbreaking scientific...
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Earth may have had all the elements needed for life within it all along −...
Scientists still debate the origins of Earth's life-sustaining elements.BlackJack3D/E+ via Getty ImagesFor many years, scientists have predicted that many of the elements that are crucial ingredients...
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Fossilized dinosaur eggshells can preserve amino acids, the building blocks...
A dinosaur eggshell cross section, as imaged under fluorescence microscopy. Evan SaittaAs a scientist, lab work can sometimes get monotonous. But in 2017, while a Ph.D. student of paleobiology at the...
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