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It's All About the Ununpentium
spitefulcrow writes "The New York Times is reporting that elements 113 and 115 have been created by a joint team of Russian and American scientists. The temporary names are ununtrium and ununpentium until the experiment has been duplicated and verified in another lab. According to the article, speculation has been made that 'Rather than being round, nuclei in that region and beyond could contain bubbles and have strange doughnut-like shapes'."
mmmmmm....mini-doughnuts..
-B
Mmmmm... Forbidden ununpentium....
Small potatoes make the steak look bigger.
I'm sure there will be a movie about it. Bruce Willis the cab-driver and his girlfriend who wears nothing but ductape, all over again.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
...but when are we going to have the ununceleron, ununathlon, ununopteron & ununitanium?
-- Power corrupts, but PowerPoint corrupts absolutely.
Cuz if it is
Laboratory tests prove the new element can't divide or multiply.
For the tin-foil hat impaired, here is a de-register-it-ized link: The Story
Unless then meant that Macs are the UnPentium. In which case the above still holds. :)
You are not the customer.
Interesting notion ... I happened to stumble across a reference to this "ununpentium" the other day while satisfying my science fiction curiosities on a site called "AboveTopSecret.com". Apparently, some of the Area 51 conspiracy theorists believe it's used in anti-gravity research... or something like that.
t 115.htm l
Document about ununpentium published in 1999:
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/pages/elemen
Skiers and Riders -- http://www.snowjournal.com
I for one salute our science community. Keep up the good work folks.
The science community thanks you for your support. We are currently accepting cash donations.
Virgil:All right, then. For half a million dollars, which of the following is not a subatomic particle? ... well, I was born in Indiana, so that ain't it. And, uh, hmmm ... I'd better call my lifeline.
...
Moe:Oy.
Virgil:
A) Proton
B) Neutron
C) Bonbon, or
D) Electron
Moe:Oh, boy. All right, let's see here, uh
Homer:Well, it all starts when a nulicule comes out of its nest.
Lisa:[taking the phone] The answer is "bonbon!"
Moe:Uh, I'm going to say, "bonbon."
Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion.
The ununpentium: Element number 114.9999659899937582.
Tom Geller
The only thing that girl's bandagewear could have possibly protected against was an NC-17 rating.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
According to the article, speculation has been made that 'Rather than being round, nuclei in that region and beyond could contain bubbles and have strange doughnut-like shapes'.
Containing bubbles and doughnut-like shapes? I say they should be called Duffium and Homerium.
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
(e6003 - chemist and part-time geek).
I thought the scientists had lost count and just called it umpteenium.
Well, one possible benefit would be finding a heavy element that decays in some unusual and useful way, possibly an easier way to start/stop a fission process (random idea, no feasibility assumed).
ununpentium is Latin for "115"
Not quite. Essentially, it's a name made up out of the digits that make the number. So, 1 is 'un', two is 'bi', three 'tri', four 'quad' five 'pent', six 'hex', seven 'sept', eight 'oct', and nine I can't remember; it's probably 'non'. Then you stick 'ium' on the end, because all element names have to end in 'ium'. Stick '115' in there, and you get ununpentium. The resemblance to the Intel chip is (almost) pure coincidence.
If the article is right about them being strangely shaped
Doughnut-shaped stuff will be THE SHIT in the coming years. I mean, if you closely follow some of the last releases from the so called science community, you start to notice a pattern:
Scientist: I've found out something new about how the universe works!
People: Oh, well. How great for you.
Scientist: And, uh, it might by doughnut-shaped!
People: Aaaahhhhh! Oooooohhh!
Scientist: I've found a new element!
People: Big deal.
Scientist: And its nucleus might be doughnut-shaped or something!
People: Aaaahhhhh! Oooooohhh!
So, based on that knowledge we can say that Element 115 should be very much like Element 83 (Bismuth), which is the most diamagnetic metal, giving it some very interesting properties.
Also, it should be noted that Element 115 should it possess diamagnetism, and all indications are that it should, it will be a much better diamagnetic material than Bismuth.
As other posters have said, the point is that we learn more about the nucleus - we find out exactly what the half-lives of these nuclei are, etc. This info could have applications to reactors, weapons, energy sources, etc. But the main point is that we know more about the universe. And one never knows where applications will come from. Sometimes a seemingly pointless discovery has a lot of real-world consequences - superconductors, for example, have revolutionized sensor technology for medical scanners and such (though we still don't have them for power lines). Other times, the big result is the spinoffs you come up with along the way - the internet was invented as a way to coordinate particle physics experiments.
There's probably a perfectly simple way to make superheavy elements, too. We just need to get the quarks and the gluons into separate bottles, then just weigh the ingredients and get out the Magimix. All this colliding heavy nuclei at high speed may look good and make for big budgets, but all real progress is made with test tubes and Bunsen burners.
Panurge has posted for the last time. Thanks for the positive moderations.
If it takes millions of dollars (in electricity bills) just to make a few atoms of Element 155, I don't think it will be a new energy source.
Everyone seems surprised that nuclei are not always spheres. Lopsidedness is common in nuclei. O-16, for example, has a complete set of filled proton and neutron shells (making it the nuclear equivalent of a noble gas like the helium nucleus). If you add another neutron to make O-17, the neutron fills the first available orbital (an s-orbital) in the next, empty shell. This means it will tend to zig zag back and forth in a little straight line through the center of the nucleus. Since the other particles are always attracted to it and moving toward wherever it is, the rest of the nucleus gets distended from a round sphere and stretched in the direction of the neutron's motion. O-18 is even more football-shaped because there are two neutrons in that s-orbital now. Of course, in the case of s-orbitals there is little angular momentum to use as a reference, so the axis is indeterminate and it doesn't make any sense to say the football is "pointing" in any given direction.
But many nuclei are distended by orbitals with definite angular momentum, and many are distended into shapes that are not footballs. Disks are common. The nuclei of heavy elements like uranium are shaped like light bulbs, with a definite axis. The "bulge" in the bulb sloshes back and forth along the main axis, onto each side of the center of mass.
1000000 BC: Ug, rock rock *BAM* *BAM* ug!
2004 AD: Ug, nucleon nucleon *BAM* *BAM* ug!
siggy played guitar
"To allow us to continue colliding atomic nuclei at high speeds, please click the PayPal link below."
So I'm wondering - what's the point ?
Elements 83 (bismuth) and under have one or more stable isotopes, and one or more unstable isotopes. So, for example, hydrogen (element 1) is stable, but deuterium (H-2) and tritium (H-3) are not. Nevertheless, these unstable isotopes are useful. Deuterium is used in nuclear medicine, in heavy water for nuclear reactors, and in fusion reactions. So...
Myth: Unstable isotopes are useless.
Myth Busted!
Past element 83, there are no stable isotopes. There's a pretty good chart showing the stable and unstable isotopes here. There's also an interactive one, color-coded for lifetimes, here. The half-life of these elements decreases from millenia to microseconds. However...
It's been known for decades that certain numbers of protons are "magic" in that they "pack together" in a very stable manner. Same thing with neutrons. As we approach the next "magic" numbers, the half-lives of the elements should start going back up. And they do.
In this latest experiment, the particular isotope of element 113 *may* have lasted for as long as 1.2 seconds. That's a long time for such a heavy element. Elements under 113 last for much less time, so that shows that we may be reaching the region of stability.
The region of stability is apparently close by, and *stable* superheavy elements will assuredly have useful properties.
And that's why nuclear chemists continue to search for heavier and heavier artificial elements. Because one day one of them will last for more than a few seconds. And then one day, one of them will last forever. Instant revolution in materials science.
Myth: There's no point searching for superheavy elements.
Myth Busted!
--Rob
Towards the Singularity.
Intel has their lawyers on standby, waiting to file a trademark infringement suit.
Manipulate the moderator system! Mod someone as "overrated" today.