The word magic is not often used in the context of science. But in the early 1930s, scientists discovered that some atomic nuclei – the center part of atoms, which make up all matter – were more stable than others. These nuclei had specific numbers of protons or neutrons, or magic numbers, as physicist Eugene Wigner called them.
The word magic is not often used in the context of science. But in the early 1930s, scientists discovered that some atomic nuclei – the center part of atoms, which make up all matter – were more stable than others. These nuclei had specific numbers of protons or neutrons, or magic numbers, as physicist Eugene Wigner called them.
The race to figure out what made these nuclei so stable began. Understanding these magic numbers would allow scientists to predict the properties of other nuclei, such as their mass or how long they are expected to live. With that, scientists could also predict which combinations of protons and neutrons can result in a nucleus.
For their discovery, the two physicists each got a quarter of the 1963 Nobel Prize in physics. We’re twonuclear scientists whose work is built on Goeppert Mayer’s and Jensen’s discoveries 75 years ago. These magic numbers continue to play an important role in our research, only now we can study them in nuclei that live for just a fraction of a second.
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