Nuclear physicists deal with not just the 118 elements of the periodic table, but all the isotopes of those elements, which takes the numbers into the thousands.

In this episode of Megavolts we chat with Dr Stefan Pavetich about how they keep track of all these isotopes, and all the reactions between them. Studying a reaction where the atoms disappear while you are looking at them is tricky!

Some of these happen in stars – forming the atoms of the world around us, and others happen in the walls of nuclear reactors – it’s important work, with so much more to be studied!