Mark A. Caprio

Imagine an hourglass where the sand grains transform into other grains as they fall: that's what unstable atomic nuclei are like. They live for an instant and then decay, ejecting an electron (this is beta decay). In September 2025, theorists and experimentalists gathered under the FRIB Theory Alliance to discuss how to use such decays to probe the structure of matter.

A playground with swings follows its own rules. Usually, kids sit on the lowest, most stable spots. But sometimes someone climbs higher, and the whole structure tilts a bit. That's roughly how the carbon-14 nucleus behaves — six protons and eight neutrons packed into a tiny volume.