This article was originally published with the title “ The Size and Shape of Atomic Nuclei ” in Scientific American Magazine Vol. 221 No. 2 (August 1969), p. 58 doi:10.1038 ...

For the first time, scientists have acquired direct evidence of rare, pulsing pear-shaped structures within atomic nuclei of ...

For comparison, the radius of a typical bacterium is 1 × 10-6 m and the radius of a human hair is about 1 × 10-4 m.