Unveiling the Atom and Its Nucleus

Unveiling the Atom and Its Nucleus: Discoveries, Insights, and Understanding explores how chemists and physicists have used scientific principles and experimentation to unveil the structure of the atom, factors governing nuclear stability and decay, modes of nuclear decay, and how the components of the atom interrelate to govern nuclear stability or predict its instability. Numerous examples are featured, showing how discoveries (some of which were considered insignificant at the time) have led to remarkable findings and resulted in our current knowledge of the concepts and properties of the atom, such as Oliphant’s discovery of nuclear fusion, Bethe’s energy production in stars, and consequent current fusion energy development. Examples are provided throughout where stunning discoveries were envisioned resulting from the findings of others. The book will describe how one scientific discovery led to another and how physicists have taken our current understanding of quantum chromodynamics and applied it to nuclear stability and decay. The book also provides a summary of current advances in vital applications of atomic energy, such as current applications in nuclear medicine including positron emission tomography, hadron therapy, targeted hadron therapy and radioactive nanoparticles in cancer therapy, stable and radioactive nuclides in research to enhance agricultural production, food preservation, and applied nuclear fusion. It concludes by looking at the status of international treaties and efforts to control nuclear weapon proliferation and nuclear war. Unveiling the Atom and Its Nucleus is written primarily for undergraduate and graduate students and teachers of nuclear and radiochemistry, as well as atomic and nuclear physics and physical chemistry. It will also be of interest to researchers, students, and teachers in the fields of nuclear medicine, medical physics, physical chemistry, and biochemistry, particularly those in the field of the biochemistry of radiopharmaceuticals or looking at the industrial applications of radiation and radionuclides.