Where does the periodic table of chemical elements end and which processes lead to the existence of heavy elements?

Fermium studied at GSI/FAIR — Researchers investigate nuclear properties of element 100 with laser light

13-Nov-2024 - An international research team reports on experiments performed at the GSI/FAIR accelerator facility and at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz to come closer to an answer. They gained insight into the structure of atomic nuclei of fermium (element 100) with different numbers of neutrons. Using ...

Microplastics in soil: Tomography with neutrons and X-rays shows where particles lay in soil

21-Nov-2023 - It really is a problem: Microplastics are everywhere. Now, an HZB and University Potsdam team developed a method that for the first time enables us to precisely localise microplastics in soil. The 3D tomography shows exactly the location of particles and the change in structure of the soil – ...

Elusive carbonic acid: it really exists!

Everyone believes that they know it, but it has remained one of the biggest secrets in chemistry

23-Nov-2022 - The existence of carbonic acid has long been the subject of debate: theoretically real, but practically impossible to detect. That is because the compound decomposes at the Earth’s surface. A German-Chinese team of researchers working at the FRM II Research Neutron Source at the Technical ...

A quantum wave in two crystals

Breakthrough in neutron physics

21-Jul-2022 - Particles can move as waves along different paths at the same time – this is one of the most important findings of quantum physics. A particularly impressive example is the neutron interferometer: neutrons are fired at a crystal, the neutron wave is split into two portions, which are then ...

Deeper insight thanks to neutrons from a laser source

The desire to make the hidden visible has always been a driving force of research

28-Mar-2022 - A team led by the Technical University of Darmstadt has for the first time made laser-generated neutrons usable for an industrial application. The researchers showed that neutrons generated compactly with lasers can be used in non-destructive material testing. As electrically neutral particles, ...

Neutrons detect clogs in pipelines

New neutron-based method helps keep underwater pipelines open

25-Jan-2022 - Industry and private consumers alike depend on oil and gas pipelines that stretch thousands of kilometers underwater. It is not uncommon for these pipelines to become clogged with deposits. Until now, there have been few means of identifying the formation of plugs in-situ and non-destructively. ...

Say hello to a record-setting isotope

Spartans joined an international team to create an isotope of magnesium that’s never been seen before

03-Jan-2022 - In collaboration with an international team of researchers, Michigan State University has helped create the world’s lightest version, or isotope, of magnesium to date. Forged at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory at MSU, or NSCL, this isotope is so unstable, it falls apart before ...

The tetra-neutron

Experiment finds evidence for a long-sought particle comprising four neutrons

14-Dec-2021 - While all atomic nuclei except hydrogen are composed of protons and neutrons, physicists have been searching for a particle consisting of two, three or four neutrons for over half a century. Experiments by a team of physicists of the Technical University of Munich (TUM) at the accelerator ...

Where does gold come from?

New insights into element synthesis in the universe

17-Nov-2021 - How are chemical elements produced in our Universe? Where do heavy elements like gold and uranium come from? Using computer simulations, a research team from the GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung in Darmstadt, together with colleagues from Belgium and Japan, shows that the synthesis ...

Energy-saving gas turbines from the 3D printer

Neutrons "see" internal stress in components from additive manufacturing

27-Apr-2021 - 3D printing has opened up a completely new range of possibilities. One example is the production of novel turbine buckets. However, the 3D printing process often induces internal stress in the components which can in the worst case lead to cracks. Now a research team has succeeded in using ...