By Peter Weiss
From Washington, D.C., at the American Physical Society’s April Meeting 2001
Spectacular explosions in which heavy atomic nuclei spontaneously burst into neutrons and protons have long puzzled scientists. Scientists first noticed these “star events” while using thick photographic emulsions to detect cosmic rays. But the cause for these rarely seen bursts has remained unknown.
Now, Russian and U.S. scientists report that they may have found a way to solve this mystery. Instead of studying emulsions, Thomas E. Ward of the Department of Energy in Washington, D.C., and his colleagues at the Khlopin Radium Institute in St. Petersburg are using neutron detectors.