Number 128 (Story #2), May 11, 1993 by Phillip F. Schewe and Ben Stein VERY LOOSELY BOUND NEGATIVE IONS of atoms such as He, Ne, and Ca, created by adding an extra electron to a neutral atom, do not hold onto their excess charge for as long as predicted, forcing a revision in the theory. New experiments at the ASTRID storage ring in Denmark have provided the first measurements of the ions' lifetimes, which range from 10 microseconds to 100 milliseconds. These experiments are an example of the growing importance of storage rings, long used in particle and nuclear physics, to the study of atoms and molecules. According to Torkild Andersen of Aarhus University in Denmark, who announced the ion lifetimes at the April APS meeting, some ions are so fragile that they can be broken up by the infrared heat radiated by the storage ring itself at room temperature. In some cases, this room-temperature blackbody radiation is the determining factor in the ions' lifetimes. (Science News, 1 May 1993.)