Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you'd like an expert to answer, send it to [email protected]. What are the 'magic numbers' in nuclear physics?

Matter is made up of very small parts called atoms. Atoms can combine in different numbers and in different ways to make different molecules. Atoms and molecules make up all of the different ...

Absolute zero is often thought to be the coldest temperature possible. But now researchers show they can achieve even lower temperatures for a strange realm of "negative temperatures." Oddly, another ...

Physicists captured the first images of individual atoms freely interacting in space. The pictures reveal correlations among the 'free-range' particles that until now were predicted but never directly ...

Three studies have demonstrated the cooling and trapping of single strontium and ytterbium atoms in two-dimensional arrays. Such arrays could lead to advances in atomic-clock technology and in quantum ...

The Bohr model, introduced by Danish physicist Niels Bohr in 1913, was a key step on the journey to understand atoms. Ancient Greek thinkers already believed that matter was composed of tiny basic ...