James is a published author with multiple pop-history and science books to his name. He specializes in history, space, strange science, and anything out of the ordinary.View full profile James is a ...

The plutonium-244 hints at how heavy metals form in stars. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. A rare version of the radioactive ...

A byproduct of aging nuclear weapons stockpiles could help power spacecraft on missions lasting decades. Americium-241, an isotope that can be separated from aged plutonium, is being studied as a ...

A team of scientists has discovered a new, stable form of plutonium – and done so by accident. The famously unstable element is tricky to transport, store and dispose of, but the find could lead to ...

The environment and human health are adversely affected by plutonium, even in minute quantities. The isotope plutonium-244 provides clues about nucleosynthesis and neutron star mergers, so plutonium ...

Oxidation is the process where atoms lose electrons during a chemical reaction. Among the radioactive elements, neptunium and plutonium are much harder to oxidize than uranium. To study these elements ...

Actinides are a group of heavy, radioactive elements that include uranium, plutonium, americium, curium, berkelium and californium. Understanding how these elements bond with other atoms (known as ...

The rare form of the element found on the Pacific seabed points to its violent birth in colliding stars. By William J. Broad Scientists studying a sample of oceanic crust retrieved from the Pacific ...

Elements that do not exist in nature—that have been created in a laboratory—are unstable. After hours or days of one element bombarding another with enough energy for both to fuse, the resulting new ...