How Long Can a Neutron Live? Depends on Who You Ask

When physicists strip neutrons from atomic nuclei, put them in a bottle, then count how many remain there after some time, they infer that neutrons radioactively decay in 14 minutes and 39 seconds, on average. But when other physicists generate beams of neutrons and tally the emerging protons—the particles that free neutrons decay into—they peg …

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