THE atomic nucleus behaves so much like a drop of liquid, it can actually
boil, say physicists who have measured the properties of nuclear “vapour” for
the first time. Their discovery is helping to explain how heavy elements such as
gold, lead and uranium are made inside supernovae.
Strong nuclear forces hold protons and neutrons together in nuclei in much
the same way that electromagnetic forces bind the molecules in a droplet of
water. In nuclear reactions the minuscule “droplet” can spin, bulge or split,
but until now no one had found a way to discover whether it can boil.…
