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(credit: NASA)

Up to a certain point, the elements of the periodic table are largely formed in the hearts of stars. But for elements that are heavy enough (heavier than zinc typically), fusing two lighter nuclei just won’t do it. To form those elements, another process is needed: neutron capture.

Neutrons get captured when they collide with an atomic nucleus and get stuck together, creating a heavier nucleus. Neutrons can undergo these collisions at lower energies because they’re electrically neutral so they won’t be repelled, unlike protons. If the resulting nucleus is unstable, however, one of its neutrons can decay into a proton, creating a heavier element.

A lot of heavy elements are formed by neutron capture, but the details of how it happens haven't been well worked out. That's in part because there are two kinds of neutron capture processes: the slow process (s-process) and rapid process (r-process). Each of these accounts for about half of the elements produced by neutron capture in our Universe.

(credit: Valentina Palladino)

Back at this year's CES in January, HP showed off its new sleek and slim Elitebook Folio G1, which echoed the design and Thunderbolt ports of Apple's new MacBook. That device is part of HP's business lineup, and now the company is introducing the new HP Spectre for regular consumers to ogle at. However, the Spectre has a few different tricks in its small, dark frame, including CPU power up to Intel Core i7, three USB Type-C ports, and up to 9.5 hours of battery life.

All of the Spectre's features revolve around its design. HP already has the Spectre x360 convertible laptop series, but with this notebook the company focused on making it as thin as possible while retaining power, efficiency, and battery life. The Spectre measures 10.3mm, making it even slimmer than Apple's 13.1mm MacBook. It is heavier than the MacBook at 2.45 pounds, but weight wasn't necessarily at the top of HP's priority list for this device. Not only is the Spectre an attempt at a slim and stylish statement laptop that you can still do serious work on, but it's also another HP device that mimics the MacBook in the best ways while attempting to fix the issues that most users have with it (namely a lack of ports).

There's not a lot of real estate for an array of ports on the Spectre either, but HP managed to put three USB Type-C ports on the back of the copper-coated edge just behind the notebook's hinge. Two of those ports are Thunderbolt as well, and they all support display, charging, power, and data. You can charge the notebook, hook it up to external displays, and share data using any and every one of the ports.