Long-sought isotope nickel-48, which was produced for the first time last month in a French accelerator, may prove a rigorous testbed for models of nuclear structure because it has a special number of neutrons and protons.

Bertram Blank
CEN Bordeaux-Gradignan
Le Haut-Vigneau
BP 120
F-22175 Gradignan Cedex
France

From Science News, Vol. 156, No. 17, October 23, 1999, p. 271. Copyright © 1999, Science Service.