An atom is the smallest unit of an element that retains its chemical properties. It is made of protons, neutrons, and electrons. (Image: M ...

A: Some people think that an atom is the smallest form of matter, but it’s not. Every atom is made up of subatomic particles – protons, electrons and sometimes neutrons. Protons themselves are now ...

Are quantum particles polygamous? New experiments suggest some of them abandon long-standing partnerships when ...

Physicists have started running the world's largest particle accelerator at a new record energy and taking the first data from these ultra-powerful collisions. Protons zoom around the 17 mile (27 ...

GENEVA - Scientists working at the world's biggest atom smasher near Geneva have announced they are confident that the new subatomic particle discovered last summer is a version of the long-sought ...

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. A few years from now, if a crew of physicists gets its way, a squat building will rise above the ...

Scientists shined a little light, literally, on the perplexing processes that govern atoms, in a new experiment that showed the effect of bouncing one photon of light off an atom. Atoms and particles ...

Confine electrons within microscopically thin layers of material and weird things happen. Experiments on semiconductors in the 1980s demonstrated that to physicists (SN: 10/17/98, p. 247). Now, two ...

Since the beginning of time, human beings have sought to understand what the universe and everything within it is made up of. And while ancient magi and philosophers conceived of a world composed of ...

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. At the subatomic level, particles can fly through seemingly impassable barriers like ghosts. For ...

When most of us picture an atom, we think about a small nucleus made of protons and neutrons orbited by one or more electrons. We view these electrons as point-like while rapidly orbiting the nucleus.