Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

How to measure a superheavy atom

Researchers derive the masses of nihonium and moscovium using a new direct technique.
Researchers working on apparatus

Researchers Jacklyn Gates and Kenneth Gregorich install the FIONA device used to size up several superheavy elements. Credit: Marilyn Chung/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Physicists have taken the first direct measurements of the mass number — the total number of protons and neutrons in an atomic nucleus — of the superheavy elements nihonium and moscovium.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Get just this article for as long as you need it

$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 564, 165 (2018)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-07626-0

References

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links