FOR just half a microsecond, four atoms of nickel had the largest excess of
protons over neutrons in their nuclei ever seen. After firing stable nickel
nuclei at a metallic nickel target in the heavy ion accelerator at Caen in
Normandy, Bertram Blank and his colleagues from the Centre for Nuclear Studies
in Bordeaux produced four nickel-48 nuclei. The most common isotope of nickel
has an atomic weight of 58 (Physical Review Letters, vol 84, p
1116).
The nickel-48 nuclei contained 28 protons but only 20 neutrons. Normally such
a large excess of protons would make the nucleus unstable.…
