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

A peculiar atom shakes up assumptions of nuclear structure

Lopsided potassium isotope survives longer than predicted by theory.
visualisation of the Bohr model of an atom. At the centre is the tightly packed nucleus, composed of protons and neutrons.

Atomic nuclei (artist’s impression) contain both protons and neutrons. A newly reported isotope offers the hope of testing fundamental principles of nuclear structure. Credit: Mark Garlick/SPL

Physicists have found an exotic variant of potassium that is much longer-lived than predicted — hinting at the existence of other more-extreme atoms that stretch the known limits of nuclear structure.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

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

Nature 573, 167 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-02655-9

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