As teaching is one of this lab’s main themes
It’s the place that introduced me to physics with beams
They accelerate nuclei, the protons and neutrons
At the centers of atoms, we call ‘em nucleons
Protons define the element, its chemistry
Neutron numbers affect elements with subtlety
They define the isotopes, and with the FRIB they hope
To make some that no one’s ever seen before, and that’s dope.
So you know the elements from the periodic table
But this other version highlights isotopes that are stable
The isotopes we know are on a diagonal track
And at first glance, I thought that it looked pretty whack
But as you get away from that stable nucleus line
There’s radioactive isotopes we don’t usually find
On earth, because these nuclei prefer to decay
Into more stable isotopes by tossing particles away
Before they can, the teams here check out their dynamics
Measure masses and lifetimes, and study their mechanics

They’re building FRIB with mysteries to solve
Like what reactions drive stars and how do they evolve
The strong force binds nuclei but we still can’t say
Exactly why some are stable while others decay
more powerful machine can push the frontier
The physicists here, they get nuclear

So let’s say you were making a new kind of nucleus
In F-RIB, a planned facility that’s long been discussed
The starting atoms – they’re just ordinary
Stable isotopes – they’re easier to store and carry
You strip off their electrons for a charged state
They zip through electric fields made to accelerate
Then you slam them into something, we call it the target,
Five percent of your nuclei are going to really hit it
Those that do will be different from your starting crew
They’ve lost protons and neutrons, or maybe gained a few
All kinds of fragments have just been created
So you put them through a magnet that can get them separated
If it’s got lots of protons, it takes an inside curve
But more neutrons tend to drag it for an outside swerve
You filter out the isotopes that you don’t want in the stream
And voila, you’ve got a rare isotope beam
And to put your nucleus on the nuclear map
You’ll then measure it in a detector or trap
This facility is for research and to teach
So the “you” could be more than just a figure of speech.

They’re building the FRIB with mysteries to solve
Like what reactions drive stars and how do they evolve
The strong force binds nuclei but we still can’t say
Exactly why some are stable while others decay
more powerful machine can push the frontier
The physicists here, they get nuclear

branch of nuclear physics works to understand the stars
Because burning hydrogen only takes them so far
If they’re big they [bad word] through helium, carbon
Neon, oxygen and silicon, right up to iron
Which is bound so tight that burning reaches its conclusion
There’s no energy to gain by either fission or fusion
So the core collapses, then BAM it explodes!
The nuclei get broken but it’s sending out loads
Of nucleons, which ram each other and stick together
Protons and neutrons can switch from one to the other
Swapping charge is simple when they’ve got the energy
To make a small charged particle and set it free
So they stagger through the chart, and when the story is told
They might be copper or iodine or possibly gold
And on a much smaller scale, these nuclei are made
In a lab to see how this scenario played
Out. The stuff we see on the earth from [bad word] to Moldova
Came out of an explosion – we’re made of supernova
(Supernovae…)

Although it’s for basic science, FRIB could hold answers
For medicine – specifically the treatment of cancer
Isotope therapy shoots nuclei into tumors
Killing cancer cells to keep the patient out of the tomb
The beam packs the most punch in the place where it halts
And since it stops in the tumor, it [bad word]