There is a silent threat building up in the basements and crawl spaces of millions of American homes, and most people have no ...

Radioactive decay (also known as nuclear decay, radioactivity, radioactive disintegration or nuclear disintegration) is the process by which an unstable atomic nucleus loses energy by radiation. A ...

For the first time, researchers have directly observed an exotic type of radioactive decay called two-neutrino double electron capture. The decay, seen in xenon-124 atoms, happens so sparingly that it ...

Hickory dickory dock, this nucleus could make a great clock. A special variety of the element thorium hosts an atomic nucleus that could be used to keep time, scientists say. In a first, researchers ...

In this lesson, students will simulate the randomness of decay in radioactive atoms and visualize the half-life of a sample radioactive element. This lesson can be completed in two (2) 45-minute class ...

The amount of long-lived radioactive elements incorporated into a rocky planet as it forms may be a crucial factor in determining its future habitability. That's because internal heating from the ...

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have unveiled a groundbreaking method for rapidly detecting and measuring radioactivity in minuscule samples. The technique, ...

A new study identifies internal heating from radioactive decay as a critical factor in a planet’s ability to generate a magnetic field and retain an atmosphere. Credit: Illustration by Melissa Weiss ...

While Io, the most volcanically active moon in the solar system, appears completely dry and devoid of water ice, its neighbor Europa is thought to harbor a vast global ocean of liquid water beneath ...