AN UNUSUAL exchange of energy between an atom’s nucleus and its electrons has
been seen for the first time, some 25 years after physicists predicted it. The
phenomenon could change our understanding of how the Universe’s heavy elements
are formed inside supernovae.
Normally there is an unbridgeable gap between the low-energy world of an
atom’s electron cloud and the high-energy world of its nucleus. The electrons
produce or absorb the low-energy photons in infrared, visible and ultraviolet
light. By contrast, the nucleus spits out bits of matter, X-rays and gamma rays
which are thousands of times more energetic.
But in…
