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Nuclear reactions routinely create new atoms from existing subatomic particles.

The Claim

Atoms cannot be created.

Verified by Lenz ·

The Short Version

Nuclear processes demonstrably create new atoms from existing particles. Stellar nucleosynthesis, fusion, fission, and laboratory bombardment produce nuclei of new atoms; conservation laws governing matter, energy, or baryon number do not prohibit such formation. The statement would require an unstated “from nothing” qualification to be defensible.

Caveats

  • The claim equivocates between forming atoms and creating matter from nothing.
  • Baryon-number conservation does not imply conservation of atomic number, identity, or count.
  • In ordinary chemical reactions, atoms are generally rearranged rather than newly produced, but the claim is not limited to chemistry.

The Receipts

  1. DOE Explains...Nucleosynthesis - Department of Energy

    energy.gov

  2. The origin of the elements: a century of progress

    royalsocietypublishing.org

  3. Stellar Nucleosynthesis - an overview | ScienceDirect Topics

    sciencedirect.com

  4. Searches for baryon number violation in neutrino experiments: a white paper - IOPscience

    iopscience.iop.org

  5. Synthesis of the Elements in Stars

    journals.aps.org

  6. DOE Explains...Nuclear Fission

    energy.gov

  7. Physicists find major clue to matter’s biggest mystery | Scientific American

    scientificamerican.com

  8. Experimental Tests of Baryon and Lepton Number Conservation Review for the Encyclopedia of Particle Physics

    arxiv.org

  9. Origin of the Elements

    www2.lbl.gov

  10. Nuclear explained - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)

    eia.gov

+ 23 more sources — see the full list on Lenz

Filed Under

Atoms

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