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'."

Comments

ooooh..me first

[Ralph Wiggam]

mmmmmm....mini-doughnuts..

-B

Yet another Pentium joke

[tgeller]

The ununpentium: Element number 114.9999659899937582.

Re:Science Today

[Anonymous Coward]

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!

The Big deal with Element 115...

[NuWinter]

Assuming it was found, is that based on our understanding of the Periodic Table of Elements, those elements in the same Group or column have similar properties.

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.

Re:What's the point ?

[autophile]

They create heavy elements, which are so unstable that they decay as quickly as they were created.

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