The question of where atoms come from requires a lot of physics to be answered completely – and even then, physicists only have good guesses to explain how some atoms are formed.

Many heavy atoms form from a supernova explosion, the remnants of which are shown in this image. NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage ...

Richard Feynman, a famous theoretical physicist who won the Nobel Prize, said that if he could pass on only one piece of ...

A new method uses helium droplets combined with ultrashort laser pulses to trigger chemical reactions in a controlled way.

An atom consists of a heavy center, called the nucleus, made of particles called protons and neutrons. An atom has lighter ...

An atom consists of a ... but I'll talk about those soon. An element is what scientists call a group of atoms that are all ...

Why did they form at that time? Astronomers know from observing distant exploding stars that the size of the universe has ...

For the first time, a research team led by Markus Koch from the Institute of Experimental Physics at Graz University of Technology (TU Graz) has tracked in real time how individual atoms combine to ...

Wyoming today already produces 20% of the world’s Grade A helium from one location, ExxonMobil’s Shute Creek facility in Sublette County, according to the company. Last year, Exxon announced it would ...

The word magic is not often used in the context of science. But in the early 1930s, scientists discovered that some atomic ...

The helium we do have is largely a result of radioactive decay of heavier elements. One common form of decay involves the production of alpha particles, whose two protons and two neutrons are the ...

Heavier elements, one atom at a time In 1955, mendelevium (101) was formed by bombardment of einsteinium-253 with a beam of helium-4 ions (alpha particles). The successful identification of ...