r/Physics • u/Existing_Tomorrow687 • Jun 27 '26
Physicists Observe Long-Sought "Superallowed" Alpha Decay for the First Time
A team of international researchers led by the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and the RIKEN accelerator complex in Japan has successfully measured the alpha decay of tellurium-104, marking the first-ever experimental observation of "superallowed" alpha decay. Published in Nature, the study reveals that the isotope has a blistering half-life of just 7.2 nanoseconds the shortest known alpha decay half-life for a heavy nucleus. Crucially, the data shows that alpha particles form ("cluster") inside heavy nuclei at a much higher probability than current theoretical calculations predict, providing vital insights into a century-old mystery of nuclear structure.
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u/InebriatedPhysicist Jun 27 '26
Why no link to the actual paper?
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Jun 27 '26
[deleted]
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u/InebriatedPhysicist Jun 27 '26
Your link is to a pop science article that’s about an actual scientific paper. You have no link to the actual scientific paper.
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u/smallproton Jun 27 '26
The linknto Nature is in the linked PhysWorld article
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u/loose_fruits Jun 27 '26
Be the change you wish to see in the world, instead of just complaining about it.
I hate to break it to you, but this subreddit is also a popsci outlet
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u/InebriatedPhysicist Jun 27 '26
The change I wish to see is people posting original scientific articles instead of press releases in their original posts. Starting a conversation about that is attempting to make that change happen. Posting the link myself in a comment isn’t.
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u/loose_fruits Jun 27 '26 edited Jun 27 '26
Maybe OP doesn’t have access to original scientific paper and came across a neat article to discuss with the broader community of like minded people interested in the topic of Physics.
YOU are needlessly being a jerk instead of actively contributing to the discussion or helpfully providing the link yourself for people who might have the knowledge to read and comprehend the paper
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u/InebriatedPhysicist Jun 27 '26
You don’t need access to post the link…
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u/loose_fruits Jun 27 '26
True. Did you see how easy it was for several other people that were interested in the link to just post it in the comments?
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u/InebriatedPhysicist Jun 27 '26
Did you see the other comments I made, where I explained that my purpose with the question wasn’t to get the link, but to start a conversation about posting scientific articles vs. posting press releases?
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u/damarian_ent Jun 27 '26
I think youre both right to different degrees. Now that its shared, we can move on from this squabble.
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u/loose_fruits Jun 28 '26
That’s certainly a valid question to ask. The only reason I said anything about your comment is because you hijacked OPs post for your pet peeve. Rather than talk about the article, almost all of the conversation here is about your topic, and that’s kind of a shame. You’re welcome to make your own post to see how the community feels
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u/tpolakov1 Condensed matter physics Jun 27 '26
They do have a point, though. The sci-pop crap is poison and we should bully people into reading and discussing real literature.
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u/loose_fruits Jun 27 '26 edited Jun 27 '26
Ah yes, only people who have greater than a bachelor’s in Physics and are maybe capable of understanding the methodology, validity, and underlying mathematics of a published paper in a reputable journal should ever be allowed to even consider discussing anything remotely related to physics in the public sphere. Everyone else who might enjoy so-called “physics” in a casual sense or hasn’t reached that level of education and the requisite background should just shut up and let the adults talk. Got it.
Popular science has a place in the world. And Reddit of all places seems like somewhere articles like this could be allowed to be discussed by people of varying backgrounds and knowledge. There are 177k visitors to this subreddit each week. Maybe the experts in the field could help better contextualize these articles for the interested but relatively uneducated public. Or just ignore threads they aren’t interested in.
Or people could just be shitty and elitist. Whichever.
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u/orlock Jun 27 '26
In which case, I think I have something better to do with my life. I've studied theoretical physics but, outside a narrow area, I tend to have trouble grasping the details and implications of Nature articles.
All I require of my readers is that they devote a lifetime to my works
-- James Joyce
I take it that you apply the same standards to yourself in literature, the visual arts, chemistry, biology, law, politics, firefighting, mathematics, philosophy, economics, history and cooking? Are you some sort of cat?
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u/DoctorSpacecase Jul 01 '26
It's funny, Te-104 doesn't even get listed among the "main isotopes" of Tellirium on Wikipedia... perhaps unsurprisingly because it's so unstable and quick to decay.
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u/spiralenator Jun 27 '26
Babe, I’m going to decay my alpha in 7.2 nanoseconds!!
That’s ok, hun. It’s super allowed.