Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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I like this idea, only I think it should be run by the government.

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bottom up design

A mass of tabletop experiments to find how to make a single atom unstable.
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In my mind, atoms are so small that any nuclear experiment is a group situation. This means that any environment variables are working on a collective and the effects on each individual member is unknown. Effectively the experiment is a black kettle.

What if an atom can be trapped and manipulated alone by all the environmental variable changes possible. With a large array of testing, a set of precision changes, a beautiful song of energy that will loosen up an atom's stability without the need for blind blunt energy raising cooking.

Of course the complexity of the universe is such that knowing an individual atom's instability doesn't mean that that a groups instability will be known but of course having the individuals notes helps to write the group music.

It would be the dawning of a new age if one atom could be unwrapped and the energy harnessed.

wjt, Jun 03 2017

Moving atoms https://www.google....ome-mobile&ie=UTF-8
Manipulation of individual atoms [csea, Jun 03 2017]

Quantum Zeno Effect https://en.wikipedi...Quantum_Zeno_effect
[theircompetitor, Jun 13 2017]

removing electrons can cause different atom decays at atom smashers https://t2k-experim...es-and-experiments/
[beanangel, May 11 2021]

[link]






       What?
notexactly, Jun 03 2017
  

       // I my mind //   

       Cogito, ergo sum ?
8th of 7, Jun 03 2017
  

       Cogito, ergo sumthin'
MaxwellBuchanan, Jun 03 2017
  

       [marked-for-tagline]
jutta, Jun 03 2017
  

       <thinking>How do I state this? </thinking> From a layman's perspective all nuclear chemical reactions look like cooking experiments but at extremely high temperatures and specialised energies. Cooking, not engineering.   

       If we have such a beautiful mathematical plan of an atom, shouldn't we be able to work out the perfect energy actions to undo the atom in an engineering type way?   

       Rather than randomly hammering and heating the nut stuck in the wall, throw spinning spanners at it.
wjt, Jun 04 2017
  

       I still don't know if it's sensible, but at least I understand it now.
notexactly, Jun 04 2017
  

       With photolithography and 3D printing we should be able to produce some very complex electron and magnetic shaddowing masks.   

       Trying to make magnetism and charge patterns unseen by nature would definitely be a start to making an atom unstable.   

       [csea] From the electrons perspective, atoms look pretty round but electrons don't really like electrons.
wjt, Jun 05 2017
  

       So, WIBNI we knew more about atoms, because then, somehow, the strong and/or weak nuclear forces would go "ping". Orchestration to follow.
pertinax, Jun 05 2017
  

       //bottom up design// isn't that how they make politicians?
MaxwellBuchanan, Jun 05 2017
  

       Either wjt hasn't read much about the standard model and all of the great things we can do with lasers lately, or I'm misunderstanding this.
RayfordSteele, Jun 07 2017
  

       The imagined volume that a laser produces must look interesting when exhibited at Max's Gold exhibit.
wjt, Jun 10 2017
  

       It's that too.
wjt, Jun 11 2017
  

       Incidentally, [wjt], you may (or may not) be interested to know that, if you can observe the nucleus of certain radioactive atoms with sufficient precision, you can prevent them from decaying, because their decay involves a quantum tunnelling event which is prevented by observation.
MaxwellBuchanan, Jun 13 2017
  

       Yes, but it only works if if it's a Paddington Special Hard Stare ...
8th of 7, Jun 13 2017
  

       [Max] That just says to me that 'observation' is an energy, a touch and we just changed the dynamics of those unstable isotopes.( rephrasing [8th] )
wjt, Jun 17 2017
  

       Well, yes, but no. "Energy" has a fairly specific meaning, and "observation" can't be "an energy". It's all got something to do with that spooky quantummy business.
MaxwellBuchanan, Jun 17 2017
  

       // From the electrons perspective, atoms look pretty round //   

       Is it too late to point out that an atom can't "look" like anything to an electron ?   

       An atom consists at a minimum of a proton and an electron in interaction. Any observation of the system will modify its state such that the data obtained by observation is immediately "aged", i.e. no longer current (valid).   

       Protons and electrons have no "perception" of each other; perception is a non-quantum, human concept.   

       You'll be advocating action at a distance next ...
8th of 7, Jun 17 2017
  

       <sadly shaking head> [8th of 7] You should know me by now. 'Looks' in a very very loose usage. Either the electron is part of the fabric such as you elbow in your arm and sees the forces moving through it or it is individualised such as your elbow seeing the door frame as you you go through.
wjt, Jun 17 2017
  

       I like the idea of doing stuff to individual atoms to see if it effects radioactive decay. There's new stuff to do all the time:   

       The delayed quantum choice eraser uses laser optics to do something that some physicists call "retrocausal", others call "heralding" and other say different things about. At the retrocausal interpretation making the beamsplitters and lenses out of radioactive material could possibly catch retrocausality at radioactive decay, or cause delayed radioactive decay. If it is possible to devise a "time speeds up" variant of the delayed quantum choice eraser experiment then they could see if that accelerated radioactive decay at actual radioactive atoms in the optics; similarly the delayed choice quantum eraser experiment was done in air, so that suggests a radioactive gas, and laser immobilized atoms, could be at the retrocausal physical point (if there is one; retrocauslity may be spread across the entire apparatus) or a few atoms from it.   

       radioactive bose einstein condensate, with one technetium atom, what happens to it when the technetium atom predictably decays? I do not know.   

       As to effecting radioactivity I think the strong and weak nuclear forces are associated with nucleus "cohesion"; that suggests any space in the equations to effect those could be a basis for more "spanners to throw" at the atoms to see if they change.   

       If you wanted to run a very thin atom through a very thick atom you could accelerate protons to 99.9999 percent of the speed of light (routine), and then have them meet atoms in a different frame of reference that did not experience matter compression (foreshortening) from relativity; the thin disc atom would "scan" through the stationary atom it was "not colliding" with, and other atoms quantum entangled to the scanning thin disc atom might change based on what they reacted to at the interior at the plump atom.   

       Just thinking of it, quantum entangling [linking] a bunch of photons to a proton, accelerating the proton to relativistic thinness, and using the linked proton beam, spray, or dribble to scan matter at depth could actually find the chemistry of various things to the depth of material or tissue that a relativistically accelerated proton can go; a new kind of scanner.   

       I think there's something called IT pattern resonance, it is possible that radioactivity might occur at different velocities in live humans, uninterred car accident remains, and interred (buried) bodies. This would be easy to test with voluntary isotope injections of very aged people in nursing homes expected to have less than a year to live. If it is findable, then that would be big news.
beanangel, May 07 2021
  

       //radioactive bose einstein condensate//
That's actually a worthy candidate for research. You should find a local university (or lab of some other flavour) that works with ultra-cold and suggest it.
neutrinos_shadow, May 09 2021
  

       I make atoms unstable every time I move. I make atoms unstable every time I THINK about moving. It's easy when you're as large as I am.
Voice, May 10 2021
  

       I just read that neutrino generators make different atomic particles bases on adjusting the e- charge of the atom, "The idea of the beta beam is to increase the neutrino energy by stripping the electrons off the radioactive isotope and then accelerating the positively charged ion to high energies before it decays. This boosts the energy of the neutrinos produced, and also collimates them into a fairly narrow beam" [link]   

       So there is one example where wiggling charge effects the output of a atom-smasher event.
beanangel, May 11 2021
  

       //What if an atom can be trapped and manipulated alone//   

       Your atom wants a lawyer.   

       //throw spinning spanners at it//   

       So ... you're going to make a spanner out of neutrinos? If so, then how, and, if not, then what?
pertinax, May 11 2021
  

       There is neutrino detector that weighs just 15 Kg, assuming it gets 11 times (or more) better at detecting neutrinos or 11 times smaller (or more) can detect neutrino beams. neutrino beams can be made a with a narrow tube of cobalt 51 or produced through lasers-zap- foil-really-hard radiation generators (small form factor).   

       One of the possible benefits scanning neutrino beams through things like brains is imaging at depth. Another application is finding oil, gas, and other ores by putting narrow beam neutrino emitters and detectors down drill holes to scan Km of earth for minerals.   

       Another application of neutrino beams is Greenshift.
beanangel, May 13 2021
  

       [pertinax] I noticed I did not actually answer your question. basically [wjt] could make a radiation sandwich, and then swap out a bunch of different stable and unstable isotopes (there are only about 1000 (?)) to see if any of them experienced something different than the predicted rate of decay.   

       =======[ radiation shield] I(sotope being tested) is an ascii diagram of a radiation sandwich.
beanangel, May 13 2021
  

       Thank you, [beanangel]
pertinax, May 13 2021
  
      
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