I have to tell you this is only mostly correct, and there are a few really impressive exceptions. Certain nuclear decay modes, such as electron capture, do depe

I have to tell you this is only mostly correct, and there are a few really impressive exceptions. Certain nuclear decay modes, such as electron capture, do depend on the chemical environment of the nucleus. Beryllium-7 decays purely by electron capture with a half-life of somewhat over 50 days. Differences in chemical environment can alter the half-life by around 0.2%, and high pressures produce somewhat similar changes. A much more spectacular alteration is if you strip away all the electrons from the very weak beta-emitter rhenium-187 in a particle accelerator, to form a bare nucleus. Neutral rhenium-187 has a half-life of 42 × 10^9 years, the fully ionised rhenium-187 has a half life of just 33 years - a billion fold speed up in decay rate! http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/ParticleAndNuclear/decay_rates.html http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/ParticleAndNuclear/dec...