University of Southern California scientists have proven that the Earth's inner core is backtracking—slowing down—in relation to the planet's surface, as shown in new research published in Nature.
Earth Sciences
Jun 12, 2024
17
1969
Researchers have made significant progress in understanding the transfer of neutrons in weakly bound nuclei. The experiment, performed at Legnaro National Laboratory, focused on the one-neutron stripping process in reactions ...
General Physics
Jun 21, 2024
1
175
Low-energy nuclear fusion reactions can potentially provide clean energy. In stars, low-energy fusion reactions during the stages of carbon and oxygen burning are critical to stellar evolution. These reactions also offer ...
General Physics
Jun 10, 2024
0
618
Researchers used quantum simulations to obtain new insights into the nature of neutrinos—the mysterious subatomic particles that abound throughout the universe—and their role in the deaths of massive stars.
Quantum Physics
Jun 22, 2024
0
100
Led by physicist Si-Min Wang, the research team at Key Laboratory of Nuclear Physics and Ion-beam Application (MOE), Institute of Modern Physics, and Shanghai Research Center for Theoretical Nuclear Physics, NSFC, Fudan University, ...
General Physics
Jun 27, 2024
0
4
Fusion energy is released when two light nuclei combine to form a single heavier one (nuclear fusion reaction). Fusion energy-based power generation (fusion power plant) uses the energy generated when deuterium and tritium ...
Plasma Physics
Jun 10, 2024
0
33
When molecules are irradiated with infrared light, they begin to vibrate due to the energy supply. For Andreas Hauser from the Institute of Experimental Physics at Graz University of Technology (TU Graz), this well-known ...
Nanophysics
Jun 11, 2024
0
48
When two solutions of oppositely charged polymers (polyelectrolytes) are mixed, phase separation occurs and leads to the formation of a polymer-rich phase and a supernatant phase. The precise distribution of all components, ...
Polymers
Jun 17, 2024
0
111
Elements are the building blocks of every chemical in the universe, but how and where the different elements formed is not entirely understood. A new paper in The Astrophysical Journal by University of Wisconsin–Madison ...
Astronomy
Jun 10, 2024
0
130
A team of solar physicists at NYU Abu Dhabi's Center for Astrophysics and Space Science (CASS), led by Research Scientist Chris S. Hanson, Ph.D., has revealed the interior structure of the sun's supergranules, a flow structure ...
Astronomy
Jun 25, 2024
0
108
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter; a modern thermonuclear weapon weighing little more than a thousand kilograms can produce an explosion comparable to the detonation of more than a billion kilograms of conventional high explosive. Even small nuclear devices can devastate a city. Nuclear weapons are considered weapons of mass destruction, and their use and control has been a major aspect of international policy since their debut.
In the history of warfare, only two nuclear weapons have been detonated offensively, both near the end of World War II. The first was detonated on the morning of 6 August 1945, when the United States dropped a uranium gun-type device code-named "Little Boy" on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The second was detonated three days later when the United States dropped a plutonium implosion-type device code-named "Fat Man" on the city of Nagasaki, Japan. These bombings resulted in the immediate deaths of around 120,000 people (mostly civilians) from injuries sustained from the explosion and acute radiation sickness, and even more deaths from long-term effects of ionizing radiation. The use of these weapons was and remains controversial. (See atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki for a full discussion.)
Since the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, nuclear weapons have been detonated on over two thousand occasions for testing purposes and demonstration purposes. The only countries known to have detonated nuclear weapons—and that acknowledge possessing such weapons—are (chronologically) the United States, the Soviet Union (succeeded as a nuclear power by Russia), the United Kingdom, France, the People's Republic of China, India, Pakistan, and North Korea. Israel is also widely believed to possess nuclear weapons, though it does not acknowledge having them. (For more information on these states' nuclear programs, as well as other states that formerly possessed nuclear weapons or are suspected of seeking nuclear weapons, see list of states with nuclear weapons.)
This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA
