Nuclear Stability Quotes

Everywhere in the universe, the periodic table has the same basic structure. Even if an alien civilization's table weren't plotted out in the castle-with-turrets shape we humans favor, their spiral or pyramidal or whatever-shaped periodic table would naturally pause after 118 elements.

Investigating the forces that hold the nuclear particles together was a long task.

Deep in the world of atomic nuclei, life is not always tranquil.

Originally I had planned to revert to nuclear physics there, in particular the structure of the deuteron.

Many different elements can form isomers, but only a few elements on the periodic table, like hafnium, can form isomers that last more than fractions of a second - and might therefore be turned into weapons.

If the strong nuclear force were slightly weaker, multi-proton nuclei would not hold together. Hydrogen would be the only element in the universe.

In particular, I established a reasonably accurate energy threshold for permanent displacement of a nucleus from its regular lattice position, substantially smaller than had been previously presumed.

A nuclear exchange confined to military targets seems more possible, not less, when both sides have a sure second strike capability. Then you might have a more stable balance of terror.

Having served in both Pakistan and India, I'm familiar with how their nuclear armament influenced regional stability.

The time necessary for the disappearance of half the atoms, called the half-life, is a fundamental characteristic of each radio-element; according to the substance, the value of the half-life varies between a fraction of a second and millions of years.

If some nuclear properties of the heavy elements had been a little different from what they turned out to be, it might have been impossible to build a bomb.