June 21: Zachary Constan (Outreach Coordinator, National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory at MSU). “Fantastic Nuclei and Where to Find Them.”
Nuclei are combinations of protons and neutrons found in the center of atoms. Nuclei come in different types, some such as Carbon-12 or Nitrogen-14 are stable. Others such as Carbon-14 are unstable or radioactive. Unstable nuclei vary in their “half-lives.” Some have half-lives measured in trillions of years or longer, some have half-lives measured in tiny fractions of a second. Most have half-lives somewhere between these two extremes.
Nuclei with extremely short half-lives are in general not well understood. The National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory at Michigan State University is one of a handful of facilities designed to study such nuclei.
Dr. Zachary Constan works as the outreach coordinator for the cyclotron lab and explained how the lab is studying nuclei with short half-lives. This may lead to a better understanding of certain reactions that take place within stars.
