If you use the right definition for "decay" yes, they can decay. But understand decay in the nuke sense does not mean to rot, like a rotting apple.
It means the atom transmutes from one element into another element spontaneously. And as it does this it throws off alpha, beta, gamma, or a mix of these radiation and particles.
For example, radioactive uranium goes through several stages of decay, each one throwing off nuclear radiation of some sort. This is why we say uranium is radioactive, it emits radiation all by itself, spontaneously But in the end, the transmutations reach inert lead (Pb) and the decay process ends. This is a natural process of a series of spontaneous decays.
A lot of the heavier elements are radioactive; they all decay naturally.
Some atoms, the radioactive ones, decay. That doesn't mean they are destroyed, it means they turn into a different atom, and at the same time emit radiation. The new atom might be radioactive and decay some more. Eventually, it will get to some stable atom that does not decay. Most of the atoms around us are the stable kind, because most of the unstable ones have decayed already.
Comments
If you use the right definition for "decay" yes, they can decay. But understand decay in the nuke sense does not mean to rot, like a rotting apple.
It means the atom transmutes from one element into another element spontaneously. And as it does this it throws off alpha, beta, gamma, or a mix of these radiation and particles.
For example, radioactive uranium goes through several stages of decay, each one throwing off nuclear radiation of some sort. This is why we say uranium is radioactive, it emits radiation all by itself, spontaneously But in the end, the transmutations reach inert lead (Pb) and the decay process ends. This is a natural process of a series of spontaneous decays.
A lot of the heavier elements are radioactive; they all decay naturally.
Some atoms, the radioactive ones, decay. That doesn't mean they are destroyed, it means they turn into a different atom, and at the same time emit radiation. The new atom might be radioactive and decay some more. Eventually, it will get to some stable atom that does not decay. Most of the atoms around us are the stable kind, because most of the unstable ones have decayed already.
If you mean like meat does, no.
But radioactively speaking, yes, parts of the atoms nucleus' can break away and the atom decays into a smaller one, until it is stable.