Nuclear Science
Nuclear science is the study of sub-atomic particles and their application in various disciplines. Here you can learn about nuclear power plants, atomic theory and radiation.
You Know White Noise, But What's Pink Noise and Brown Noise?
Skipping Stones on Ice Makes Crazy Sci-fi Sounds
Mystery Behind Cuba's Alleged Sonic Attack Deepens
How Do Disposable Hand Warmers Work?
Why Do Bubbles Pop?
What's the World's Strongest Superacid?
Static Electricity Can Cause Way More Than a Bad Hair Day
Light Pollution Is Stealing the Night
Party Trick Breakdown: Why Do Balloons Stick to Hair?
The Surprising Silver Lining of the Atomic Age Nuclear Tests
How Are Coroners and Medical Examiners Different?
Viking Warrior in Ancient Grave Was a Woman
Time May Not Exist, Say Some Physicists and Philosophers
How Alchemy Paved the Way for Chemistry
Who Was the First Scientist?
A Kid-friendly Introduction to Magnets and Magnetism
How Solenoids Work
Why Does Ice Stick to Your Fingers?
Why Historical Cryptologists Need to Be 'Part Mozart, Part Accountant'
Even the Smartest Mathematicians Can't Solve the Collatz Conjecture
How to Calculate the Percent Error Formula
Kummakivi, Finland's Balancing Rock, Seems to Defy the Laws of Physics
What Is Energy?
Could Newly Measured W Boson Break the Standard Model?
Why Are School Buses Yellow?
Is This Black Hole Coming for You? It's Just an Optical Illusion
Why Distant Mountains Appear Blue to the Naked Eye
Learn More / Page 2
The Large Hadron Collider isn't just a one-trick (Higgs) pony. Find out what else has happened where hundreds of millions of particles may collide any given second.
Nuclear waste epitomizes the double-edged sword of modern technology. It's a toxic and radioactive byproduct of nuclear medicine, nuclear weapons manufacturing and nuclear power plants.
Batman and particle physicists have a lot in common. While Batman brawls with anarchist clowns and mutated ecoterrorists, CERN scientists chase down their own notable adversaries. Get to know five of them.
By Robert Lamb
Advertisement
Who wants to reduce our complicated universe down to its simplest building blocks? A bunch of particle physicists, that's who. Why is the Higgs boson critical to that goal?
Thanks to our voracious appetite for energy, the element long linked with nuclear weapons is taking on a new role. Where does the hunt begin for uranium?
We're all exposed to tiny levels of radiation, but a blast of it can leave you in agony -- that is, if it doesn't kill you outright. What is it, what causes it and how can we treat it?
It's lunchtime, and you've spastically spilled soda all over your desk. Chances are you could tackle that mess faster than we could say "Mr. Clean." What do you do though when the spill is radioactive?
Advertisement
It's hard to get beyond Fukushima Daiichi when you think about nuclear meltdowns, but in fact the first one occurred decades ago, in 1969, in Switzerland's Lake Geneva region. How does such a cataclysmic incident occur?
By Robert Lamb
Over the years, nuclear reactors have been viewed as both a miracle and a menace. How does a nuclear reactor do its job? And what happens when something goes wrong?
Tour the inside of a nuclear power plant with these illustrative diagrams to learn more about how nuclear power plants work.
Explosions, fires and dangerous radiation levels dominated the headlines after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami sparked a nuclear crisis in Japan. How did so many safety measures fail?
Advertisement
If the sight of a mushroom cloud burning above the horizon suggests that the nuclear weapon-equipped world might end with a bang, then nuclear winter presents the notion that post-World War III humanity might very well die with a whimper.
By Robert Lamb
In the comics, radiation exposure turned an average man into a pea green and angry Incredible Hulk. But in reality, what can radiation do to those exposed? Is it always a villain?
By Debra Ronca
The detonation of the world's first nuclear bomb ushered in the atomic age. It also amplified tensions between countries and sparked an era in which nations scrambled for power and seemed headed toward catastrophe.
By John Fuller
If you watched "24," you might think real-life Jack Bauers stop bad guys from detonating stolen nukes all the time. Just how hard is it to steal a nuclear weapon?
By John Fuller
Advertisement
Dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki ended World War II. How did the most powerful weapon in the world get developed? It started with the Manhattan Project.
By John Fuller
British authorities have found traces of polonium-210 in at least five buildings and three British Airways jets since Alexander Litvinenko fell ill.
By Julia Layton
Iran has announced its activation of a second set of uranium centrifuges. These machines are at the core of the uranium-enrichment process. Find out where the centrifuge fits into the equation.
Fusion reactors will use abundant sources of fuel, will not leak radiation above normal background levels, and will produce less radioactive waste than current fission reactors. Learn about this promising power source.
By Patrick J. Kiger & Craig C. Freudenrich
Advertisement
Atom smashers tell us about the fundamental structure of matter, the forces holding it together and the origins of the universe. Discover how scientists use particle accelerators to break atoms apart to learn about the nature of reality.
Nuclear materials get used in many forms of nuclear medicine -- everything from PET scans to chemotherapy uses them. Learn how nuclear medicine works.
On the one hand, nuclear power offers a clean energy alternative that decreases fossil fuel dependence. On the other, it summons images of quake-ruptured Japanese power plants leaking radioactive water. What happens in reactors in good times and bad?
Nuclear radiation can be extremely beneficial or extremely harmful -- it all depends on how it's used. Learn what nuclear radiation is all about.
Advertisement
I once saw this device shaped like a light bulb. It had a vertical support inside it, and on that support there were four vanes with four diamonds on the end. One side of the diamond was black and the other was white. I did a little research and found out that it was called a Crookes' radiometer -- how does it work?
Many ads for new clocks advertise their ability to automatically synchronize themselves with the atomic clock in Boulder, Colorado. This atomic clock is more precise because it uses the frequencies of atoms as its resonator.