Element 110 Now Darmstadtium

photoblur writes "It's time to update your periodic table of the elements! Element 110 has been officially named 'darmstadtium' (Ds), after the GSI lab in Darmstadt, Germany. The GSI lab has also been officially recognized for discovering element 111."

Comments

Name of Element 111

[yanestra]

I propose Rodgauium for the name of element 111. This town (Rodgau) is even moring boring than Darmstadt. (No wonder one famous band calls itself the Rodgau Monotones...)

Re:Name of Element 111

[FileNotFound]

I think "Nobodycaresanymoreium" would be a great name for element 111.

I mean seriously, how many samples of 111 exist in non lab enviroments? For how long?

I am confused by the purpose behind this research...seems like one of those "because we can" things.

Re:Name of Element 111

[big_O_of_n!]

I was sort of hoping they'd never get around to giving 111 an official name. Unununium (Uuu) is just too good to get rid of.

Re:Name of Element 111

[big_O_of_n!]

Of course, when they get to element 118 (in significant quantities), "because we can" would be a perfectly good reason for creating a metalloid noble gas.

Re:Name of Element 111

[rdslater596]

How bout
"Nobodybutfiziksgeekscareanymoreium"

Seriously though, it is important in our understanding of both heavy nuclei physics and stellar astrophysics. That knowledge will not have an immediate benifit that most people can see. Eventaully that understanding will lead to some helpful devices and ideas that most people will go "ah-hah!" about. But inbetween breakthroughs we are inching along to set ourselves up for the next a-hah! moment.

As an example Americium (element 95--artifcially produced) is used often in smoke detectors. Back in the 30s and 40s the same argument could have been made, whats the point of all these artificial elelments?--but eventually "something" came out of it.

But more intangible furthering of knowledge is the real goal. Eventually there is some hope (and theory) that stable elements will be produced in the 115-120 atomic number range. Its hard to say exactly what hard "benefit" will come--maybe nothing, maybe something exceiting. They call it "re"-search for a reason! For now we will have to be content that we know more than we did before.

So you could say we are doing just because its there--but we are learning from it as well.

Wondeful...

[Cyno01]

I think i'll go play a game of half life to celebrate.:p

population: tire

[cloudship_tacitus]

i will not rest until the naming of strongbadium, an element in the burninating gasses.

I'm just waiting...

[ENOENT]

for scientists to discover adamantium, omnium, and unobtainium.

Element: Slashdotium found

[phunhippy]

The IETF has just announced discovery of the 31337th element named Slashdotium. This new element has perplexed engineers for many years now as it seems to simply appear out of nowhere and bring poor websites to their very knee's then dissapearing just as fast. Even stranger is the occasional apparent repeats that happen once in a while. Engineers theorize that the Slashdotium element hits some web sites twice at a rate of about 1 in 9. They are still trying to find out what is causing the repeated appearence of Slashdotium to the same site twice and one radical engineer believes its related to the element dumbasseditorium.

Name for elem. 111

[nacturation]

I think an apt name for the 111th element is Binarium.

no no no

[ed.han]

my vote would have been for SCOsuxium: much better ring to it, after all.

but imagine if those physics guys were slashdotters: we'd have

goatsexium
hotgritsium
firstpostium
beowulfiu m

and of course:

cowboynealium

ed

Re:no no no

[alatesystems]

natalieportmantium

Chris Benard

Webelements

[Arc04]

www.webelements.com had it in there for ages (dated 17th March 03), proving they rock.

So.....for all your printable periodic table needs, go to Web Elements!!

Re:Just Wondering

[overbyj]

You do reach a point where the nuclear binding force requirement is too much to hold all the protons and neutrons together in the nucleus. The nuclear binding force is necessary to overcome the repulsions of the individual protons in the nucleus. In essence, the neutrons act as mini-buffers between all the positively charged protons but after a certain number, the repulsive forces become greater than the nuclear binding energy. This energy requirement is why as you move from "lighter" radioactive elements such as uranium to darmstadtium, the half-lives decrease exponentially. Uranium isotopes have half-lives measured in billions of years while I suspect the half-life of element 110 is measured in milliseconds to microseconds. The nuclear binding energy requirement is too great to make a long-living stable nucleus.

Curse you Darmstadtium!

[Kenja]

Now the periodic table I have tattooed on my arm is WORTHLESS!

Re:Curse you Darmstadtium!

[Soko]

Well, that's what you get for not taking into account the element of suprise.

Soko