PHYSICS - Element 118 Debuts On the Periodic Table from Discover (January 2007) Issue.

 

Chemists will soon have to make room on the periodic table for a new element discovered in October. Element 118, tentatively called ununoctium, is the heftiest to date - it has 118 protons and 176 neutrons, compared with 82 protons and 126 neutrons in lead - but it is also one of the shortest-lived, decaying in less than a millisecond. To whip up a batch of ununoctium, a team of Russian and American nuclear physicsts shot calcium atoms (element 20) at a target of radioactive californium (element 98) in a particle accelerator at the Joint Institue for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia. Every so often, the nuclei of the two atoms would hit head on and stick, overcoming the replusive force between positively charged protons. It wasn't easy: After two months and 30,000,000,000,000,000,000 collisions, the group managed to create only three atoms of the new species. Starting in 2007, they will search for even heavier elements, some of which are predicted to live for several hours.

 

 

Just thought you guys should know this.

this happened several months ago IIRC. slashdot had an article on it and it was in the news part of wikipedia.

Okay. It's just my first time that I have heard of this.

dude 118 is already on my Periodic table, sorry and all that, but it`s Old news

 

keep going though, if you learn of More, PLEASE post again! mine stops at 118.

But apparently the newest elements are really useless and not as important as carbon, oxygen, nigtrogen, and many others. They also are very rare and they are man-made.

It would be remarkable though if the heavier nuclei would indeed be more stable. But wasn't there some predicted problem with the electron velocities when you go further down the table?

well if we consider the bhor model I`de sooner try push Pluto out the way than Mercury (using an astronomical analogue).

But wasn't there some predicted problem with the electron velocities when you go further down the table?

 

yeah, they would need to be going faster than the speed of light to maintain an orbit and not crash into the nucleus.

 

yeah the larger elements are pretty useless as they don't stick around long enough to do anything. if a species lasts 20 ns its not going to be a crucial component of ANYTHING never mind a biological or chemical system.

I think we're also still awaiting element 117 to be conclusively discovered. I think the discovery was breifly mentioned recently, but they were unable to reproduce their results so it was withdrawn. I guess for now we'll just have to call it eka-ununhexium.

I think we're also still awaiting element 117 to be conclusively discovered. I think the discovery was breifly mentioned recently, but they were unable to reproduce their results so it was withdrawn. I guess for now we'll just have to call it eka-ununhexium.

 

eka-ununHEPTium jdurg. you need to go look at prefixes again.

eka-ununHEPTium jdurg. you need to go look at prefixes again.

 

Well, first off I realize that the "eka" designations given by Mendelev were for the elements directly BELOW discovered ones and not next to. Secondly, the intention of the eka designation is to denote that an element does exist, but you haven't found it yet. Eka-ununHEPTium would be indicative of an element AFTER, or BELOW element 117, not element 117 itself. Therefore, I am completely correct in my earlier post by stating eka-ununHEXium even though that designation is inherently off.

 

The actual name for element 117 right now should be eka-astatine.

ah. never really bothered with the naming system after the actinides. I won't come across the elements before they find a stable one and if they ever do i'm sure a proper name would be assigned very very quickly.

Funny that even after 30,000,000,000,000,000,000 tries they didn't realize they're just wasting their time with such a useless element

The element itself is not that important, what is important though is the scientific insight obtained by doing this kind of experiments and by studying the properties of the newly created atoms (such as halflife time and the type of particles, created when it decays).

 

This is fundamental science, and fundamental science IS important. If we stop doing fundamental science then sooner or later all technological progress will come to a halt.

 

Rexus, your remark shows that you are not / will not be a real scientist .