Life's subatomic secret

• Autores: Marcus Chown
• Localización: New scientist, ISSN 0262-4079, Nº. 3096, 2016, págs. 34-35
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • People are made of carbon. So are their pets and all their houseplants. Every living thing on Earth owes its existence to carbon atoms' ability to join up with other elements in a bewildering number of ways and form complex molecules. But the abundance of this element in their universe depends on a seemingly miraculous coincidence--an excited state of the carbon nucleus that their best models say shouldn't exist, but clearly does. The nature of this weird form of carbon has baffled their for more than 60 years, much to the distress of nuclear physicists. Its existence is so essential in the sequence of reactions making life possible that their failure to explain it is deeply embarrassing. Here, Chown details the mystery of the cryptic nucleus