The valence electrons are involved in bonding one atom to another. The attraction of each atom’s nucleus for the valence electrons of the other atom pulls the atoms together. As the attractions bring the atoms together, electrons from each atom are attracted to the nucleus of both atoms, which “share” the electrons.

The atoms attract each other due to the force exerted by the nucleus of the atoms. In the beginning, the nuclear force (i.e. the force exerted by the protons present in the nucleus of one atom on the electrons of the other atom) dominate th repulsive forces between the electrons of the two atoms.

The Weird World of Particles For starters, almost all of the mass an atom has is concentrated into an incredibly small region called the nucleus. This prevents electrons from ever coming in direct contact (in an atomic sense and literal sense). Their wave packets, on the other hand, can overlap, but never touch.

An electron will only react with a proton in the nucleus via electron capture if there are too many protons in the nucleus. But most atoms do not have too many protons, so there is nothing for the electron to interact with. As a result, each electron in a stable atom remains in its spread-out wavefunction shape.

Since an atom has a finite number of protons and neutrons, it will generally emit particles until it gets to a point where its half-life is so long, it is effectively stable. It undergoes something known as “alpha decay,” and it’s half-life is over a billion times longer than the current estimated age of the universe.

When we die, our atoms will disassemble and move off to finds new uses elsewhere – as part of a leaf or other human being or a drop of dew. Atoms themselves, however go on practically forever.

Atoms are neither alive or dead, they just are. Atoms are not and have never been alive so they can’t be considered dead. they simply do not meet any reasonable of life, primarily because they are not complex chemical systems and cannot self replicate or evolve.