Many stable atoms have ‘magic numbers’ of protons and neutrons − 75 years ago, 2 physicists discovered their special properties

The linear accelerator at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, where researchers study rare isotopes of elements. Facility for Rare Isotope Beams

The word magic is not often used in the context of science. But in the early 1930s, scientists discovered that some atomic nuclei – the center part of atoms, which make up all matter – were more stable than others. These nuclei had specific numbers of protons or neutrons, or magic numbers, as physicist Eugene Wigner called them.

Maria Goeppert Mayer won the 1963 Nobel Prize in physics. Argonne National Laboratory, CC BY-NC-SA