Science News, January 11th, 1992
Many radioactive atoms decay by emitting beta particles, or electrons, thereby transforming themselves into new elements. For each atomic isotope, these beta particles emerge from nuclei with a characteristic distribution, or spectrum, of energies. Theorist Steven E. Koonin of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena has now shown that electrons surrounding an atomic nucleus have a discernible but hitherto overlooked effect on a given radioactive isotope's beta-decay spectrum. Reporting in the Dec. 12 NATURE, he notes that this newly identified quantum-mechanical effect would typic...
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