ORNL's Alfredo Galindo-Uribarri and team studied doubly magic tin-132—especially stable because it takes more energy to remove a proton or a neutron than neighboring isotopes need. Credit: Alonda Hines / ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy Separated by an ocean and more than a decade, innovative experiments with 31 tin isotopes having either a surplus or shortage of neutrons show how neutrons influence nuclear stability and element formation.