In Paris last year the Curie-Joliots bombarded a piece of lithium with alpha particles, produced neutrons and boron atoms. The scientific world at that time was engrossed with neutrons whose existence ...

Sophisticated tools allow scientists to subject the basic elements of matter to conditions drastic enough to modify their behavior. By doing this, they can expand our understanding of matter. A ...

Last month, we reported on a small but enduring mystery in cosmology: why is there so much of one isotope of lithium around? Both 6 Li and 7 Li should have been produced when the first atoms formed ...

Hydrogen and lithium are the first and third lightest elements in the universe, respectively. Under the temperature and pressures found on Earth, hydrogen is a gas and lithium is a metal. In hydrogen ...