Nuclear Physics Explained

Join an award-winning professor of physics to explore the powerful forces of nuclear energy, nuclear weapons, and nuclear medicine.

• By This Professor
• 01: A Tour of the Nucleus and Nuclear Forces
• 02: Curve of Binding Energy: Fission and Fusion
• 03: Alpha, Beta, and Gamma Decay
• 04: Radiation Sources, Natural and Unnatural
• 05: How Dangerous Is Radiation?
• 06: The Liquid-Drop Model of the Nucleus
• 07: The Quantum Nucleus and Magic Numbers
• 08: Particle Accelerators: Schools of Scattering
• 09: Detecting Subatomic Particles
• 10: How to Experiment with Nuclear Collisions
• 11: Scattering Nucleons in Singles or in Pairs
• 12: Sea Quarks, Gluons, and the Origin of Mass
• 13: Nuclear Fusion in Our Sun
• 14: Making Elements: Big Bang to Neutron Stars
• 15: Splitting the Nucleus
• 16: Nuclear Weapons Were Never “Atomic” Bombs
• 17: Harnessing Nuclear Chain Reactions
• 18: Nuclear Accidents and Lessons Learned
• 19: The Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Advanced Reactors
• 20: Nuclear Fusion: Obstacles and Achievements
• 21: Killing Cancer with Isotopes, X-Rays, Protons
• 22: Medical Imaging: CT, PET, SPECT, and MRI
• 23: Isotopes as Clocks and Fingerprints
• 24: Viewing the World with Radiation