• Question: If you could be any atom which one would would you be, and why?

    Asked by anon-232119 to Mark, Liam, Laura, Kasia, Gina, Felix on 11 Nov 2019.
    • Photo: Liam Gaffney

      Liam Gaffney answered on 11 Nov 2019:

      I’d be an atom of radium-224, because the nucleus at the centre is shaped like a pear, which is pretty weird.

    • Photo: Mark Johnson

      Mark Johnson answered on 11 Nov 2019: last edited 11 Nov 2019 11:59 pm

      Great question! I would definitely be an antihydrogen atom. It’s the only antimatter atom that we can look at in detail, and it took until 2016 for scientists to even measure its colour! NASA have said that antihydrogen is the most expensive substance on Earth, with a price tag of $94 trillion per gram.

    • Photo: Laura Sinclair

      Laura Sinclair answered on 12 Nov 2019:

      Very good question! This is a tricky one, but my gut says Carbon-12. It does not sound as fancy as the other ones but this nuclide forms the basis of all known life. C-12 is formed in stars by the triple alpha (three helium nuclei form one carbon nuclide) process. C-12 contains a special state known as the Hoyle State. This state allows nucleosynthesis (creation of nuclides) to happen in stars at a much lower temperature than otherwise would be possible. Without the Hoyle state and C-12 life as we know it would not have formed.

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