Neutrinos are perhaps the least understood of the known denizens of the subatomic world. They have nearly no mass, interact only via the weak nuclear force and gravity, and, perhaps most surprising, the three known species of neutrinos can transform from one variant into another. This transformation, called neutrino oscillation, has been…

As part of their third-year general chemistry program, students at the University of the Côte d'Azur are taught the basics of radioactivity. The view that third-year university students have of the periodic Table of the Elements is often reduced because it ignores the vast majority of isotopes. As part of this program, a practicum devoted to the…

One of the main topics of elementary physics is the idea that every material is composed of "little particles that move around in perpetual motion, attracting each other when they are a little distance apart, but repelling upon being squeezed into one other." These particles could be atoms or molecules. Atoms are the smallest part into…

In the modern and exciting world of particle physics, in which scientists talk of Higgs bosons and supersymmetry, it would be natural for someone to dismiss the common proton as a particle too pedestrian to be interesting. Yet in the centennial year of the announcement of its discovery, studies of the humble nucleus of the hydrogen atom continue…

In Japan, research activities by junior and senior high school students show an upward trend. However, there are limited examples of research activities in the field of elementary particles and atoms. This is due to the difficulty associated with procuring research tools such as accelerators or particle detectors. Therefore, we hosted the 'Accel…

In Vietnam, nuclear physics is a fundamental part of the national curriculum for physics. However, due to a lack of experimental apparatus (detectors, radioactive sources, etc) at most of the schools, the majority of students do not have opportunities to experience the phenomena behind the concepts. Moreover, safety is another major concern when…

The so-called "Rutherford's experiment," as it is outlined in many physics textbooks, is a case in point of the flaws around the history at the educational level of one of the decisive event of modern physics: the discovery that the atom has a nucleus. This paper shows that this alleged experiment is a very approximate and very partial…

We propose discussions and hands-on activities for GCSE and A-level students, covering a fundamental aspect of nuclear physics: the concept of bonds and the energy released (absorbed) when a bond is created (broken). This is the first of the series of papers named "A teaching guide of nuclear physics", whose main goal is to provide…

A hands-on experiment to obtain atomic and ionic radii with lumps of metal and ionic compounds is reported here. The experiment is performed with industrial-grade typical metals (iron, copper, aluminum, and lead) and single-crystal lumps of ionic compounds (sodium chloride, potassium chloride, and potassium bromide). Students measure the dimension…

Basic understanding of nuclear science enhances our daily-life experience in many areas, such as the environment, medicine, electric power generation, and even politics. Yet typical school curricula do not provide for experiments that explore the topic. We present a means by which educators can use the ubiquitous webcam and inexpensive sources of…

The background of the study is that the planar film heterostructures are nowadays the most common objects nanophotonic and nanoelectronic technologies. The authors noted that, among such objects found so-called quantum wells, which are formed by a complex series of nanoscale layers are deposited with differing elemental composition, and simple…

Although quantitative measurements in radioactivity teaching and research are only believed to be possible with high technology, early work in this area was fully accomplished with very simple apparatus such as zinc sulphide screens and electroscopes. This article presents an experimental practice using the electroscope, which is a very simple…

Although environmental radioactivity is all around us, the collective public imagination often associates a negative feeling to this natural phenomenon. To increase the familiarity with this phenomenon we have designed, implemented, and tested an interdisciplinary educational activity for pre-collegiate students in which nuclear engineering and…

The Billotron is a device designed and built by the LPC Caen to illustrate the methods with which physicists are able to study the basic structure of matter, in particular the nucleus of the atom.

Solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy finds growing application to inorganic and organic materials, biological samples, polymers, proteins, and cellular membranes. However, this technique is often neither included in laboratory curricula nor typically covered in undergraduate courses. On the other hand, spectroscopy and…