Physicists have found a new “island of inversion” in the nucleus of molybdenum-84, a perfectly balanced atom with equal numbers of protons and neutrons. The discovery upends a decades-old assumption ...

Physicists working with molybdenum-84, a nucleus containing exactly 42 protons and 42 neutrons, have found that this seemingly balanced atom defies one of nuclear physics’ longest-standing ...

Nuclear isomers are crucial probes for studying the structure of nuclei. Unlike chemical isomers—which have the same chemical formula but different arrangements of atoms—nuclear isomers are nuclei ...