‘Doubly magic’ form of oxygen may challenge a fundamental law of physics

For the primary time, scientists have created oxygen-28, a uncommon oxygen isotope that has 12 extra neutrons than oxygen-16, the commonest type of oxygen on the planet. This newly created “heavy” oxygen isotope has the very best variety of neutrons ever seen in an oxygen atom and was anticipated to be ultrastable and final just about endlessly. 

As an alternative, nonetheless, it degraded extremely shortly — a discovering that challenges our understanding of the robust power, which binds the basic particles of matter, comparable to protons and neutrons, to type bigger particles in an atom’s nucleus.