Lifetime of Compound Nucleus Is Measured by Crystal Blocking

In a time‐of‐flight experiment where the flight path is less than 0.01 nanometer and the time is $10−16 sec,$ the lifetime of a compound nucleus has been directly measured (probably for the first time). Combining solid‐state physics with nuclear physics, Karl Ove Nielsen (Aarhus University, Denmark) and Walter M. Gibson (Bell Telephone Laboratories) determined the lifetime by measuring blocking patterns from single crystals. They reported their results at the Washington meeting of the American Physical Society.