ANCIENT Egyptians may have been unwittingly emulating one of the most fundamental structures in existence. It turns out that the nuclei of some atoms may form tiny pyramids instead of spheres.
No shape is more compact than a sphere, which is why it’s so common in nature —from bubbles to water droplets to the Earth. Previous experiments have confirmed that although atomic nuclei can briefly form rugby ball or even egg-shaped structures, they are usually spherical or at least roughly round.
But now theoretical physicist Jerzy Dudek at the Louis Pasteur University in Strasbourg, France, and his colleagues say that…
