Why is the Oxygen 28 Experiment Important?
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An atom’s element is defined by the number of protons. However, you can vary the number of neutrons to get different isotopes. Some isotopes stick together more or less forever, while others are radioactive and fall apart on shorter time scales.
We believed that we had found good rules of thumb for guessing which isotopes would be stable, based on “magic numbers” that seemed to be present in many isotopes that we knew were stable (and yes, there is a deeper theory there, but they’re known as magic numbers for ease of conversation). Based on that experience, there was an expectation that ^28 O would be stable. However, the recent experiment found that is actually falls apart rather quickly. Therefore, we know that our magic numbers idea doesn’t always hold true, and we need to go searching for a new theory to explain the patterns of stability that we see in reality.
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