Nucleus: A Trip Into the Heart of Matter [Hardcover]

During the last 100 years, an enormous scientific effort has made it possible to understand the atomic nuclei. This knowledge has made it possible to exploit a vast variety of practical applications of nuclear processes that profoundly contribute to the tools employed in other scientific disciplines (chemistry, astronomy and cosmology, biology, medicine, geology, and much more) as well as to practical industrial problems. Because of the intrinsic interest and important societal role of nuclear science, it is most welcome that in this book a team of distinguished scientists who work at the forefront of current developments in this field use everyday language and exploit a wealth of informative pictures to explain the science and practical applications to a broad public Since the first edition of Nucleus: a Trip into the Heart of Matter was published in 2001, there has been real progress in understanding atomic nuclei, the processes involving them and the applications of these processes, not the least of which are medical applications. This progress, together with the gratifying response to the first edition, which was translated into several foreign languages, motivated us to embark on a new edition. There is some new material reflecting advances that have been made, and every page has had improvements in content and presentation. In particular, the selection of pictures has been updated where required. The second edition links the illustrations more closely to the text in a way that we hope will be helpful to the reader. Contents Foreword 8 By Ben Mottelson Preface 9 By Ray Mackintosh Introduction 10 Our world and its infinite variety 1 The size of things 14 From the immensity of space to the invisible world of the nucleus 2 The discovery of nuclei 22 How a new world was revealed by radioactivity 3 Particles or waves? 35 Strange laws at the heart of matter 4 Measuring nuclei 44 Determining the shape and size of minute objects 5 Strange nuclear material 54 The contents of a nucleus 6 The nuclear landscape 67 The variety and abundance of nuclei 7 Applications of nuclear physics 81 Interactions with everyday life 8 Nuclear architecture 95 From hydrogen to neutron stars 9 Cosmic furnaces 107 The stars and the birth of elements 10 Our violent origin 124 Cosmology and the nuclear processes in the Big Bang