Up Next
Back to Show
PBS Space Time
How Does The Nucleus Hold Together?
Season 9
Episode 5
Two protons next to each other in an atomic nucleus are repelling each other electromagnetically with enough force to lift a medium-sized labradoodle off the ground. Release this energy and you have a nuclear explosion. So how does it all hold together? Nuclei are held together by a quirk of nature, without which we would have no complex atoms, no chemistry, and certainly no labradoodles.
Support Provided By
15:58
Did you know that many of us have up to 4% neanderthal DNA?
16:35
What if the Big Bang was just an endless cycle?
19:39
Why are billions suddenly being pumped into fusion startups?
16:36
The universe should've collapsed after the Big Bang, but a light Higgs boson let us exist.
14:30
Maybe dark energy doesn't exist?
18:32
Dark matter has eluded us for many decades but we may be able to discover more now.
15:35
What do you get if you combine something that’s infinitely massive and negative infinitely massive?
13:39
What does an electron really look like?
16:35
Is there a limit to how much energy you can cram into, or pull out of one patch of space?
17:19
I’d like to invite you to an even higher level of nerdom!
11:43
Gravitational tsunamis exist and we’re on the verge of being able to detect them.
18:40
Will we ever become a Kardeshev Type-1 civilization and how can we get there?