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Japan Claims Heaviest-Ever Element
mOoZik writes "According to People's Daily Online, Japanese scientists claim to have created a new element, whose atomic number is 113, by bombarding a Bismuth atom target with 2.5 trillion zinc atoms per second for 80 days. The claim, as that of Russian and American scientists that claimed to have created elements 113 and 115 in February, remains to be officially confirmed."
The ultimate goal is reaching a theoretical Island of Stability.
This is a hypothesized region farther down on the peiodic table where extremely heavy elements become stable and long-lasting, albeit with interesting properties due to the large number of sub-elements of which they're comprised.
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The element's atomic mass number is 278, meaning its nucleus has 113 protons and 165 neutrons, he added.
For the lazy ppl who wouldn't have time to go through the article.
Quite surprising to see a mentioning of the atomic mass number only as the last sentence of the article, as this, and not the atomic number, actually decides whether this new element is the heaviest or not.
All the really heavy elements created so far have been highly unstable. However, I seem to recall a theory that suggested that some heavier elements may be more stable; perhaps able to survive long enough to be useful.
The real goal, though is to expand our understanding of physics. We're pushing the edge of our capabilities, and that's where we have the most to learn. Do the new elements behave exactly as predicted, or do we need a better model? Can the techniques used to produce these atoms be applied to other situations?
They already beat the US in building a ladder to heaven, now they're trying to beat the US in building a heavier element!
Ash nazg durbatuluk, ash nazg gimbatul Ash nazg thrakatuluk agh burzum-ishi krimpatul
That's 80*24*60*60 * 2.5 * 10^10 (bc says 1.728 * 10^17, which isn't quite comparable to the avogadro or whatever number, but is still quite impressive) atoms to get this new element that disintegrated in 0.0003 seconds
and here I am, cursing myself and the world if I have to rewrite a stupid, tiny class.
Oh man, seeing those two words together brings back a bad memory. I had been drinking really heavily one night, see? (Well, heavily for a nerd). And I was feeling pretty drunk and I thought I was going to toss my cookies bad. But there were some really sexy girls at this party and I didn't want to leave. So in my drunken state I drank some of this cheap Pepto-Bismol knockoff called Pink Bismuth, thinking it would settle my tummy. So I go back out to the main room and party like nothing happened and I'm this cool guy who can hold his liquor. Anyhow, pow! the dancing and all just was too much and I started puking all over the place. I dropped to my knees and started puking my guts out all over the coffee table. And since I had drank the Pink Bismuth not too long ago, my puke was coming out pink. I was "bombarding" the coffee table with "Bismuth atoms" -- get it?
Needless to say, none of this impressed those babes (in a positive way, at least) and I went home alone once again...
Hey, you never know. One of the heavier elements might turn out to be a room temperature semiconducting superconductor, which will naturally be very useful in building a cold fusion perpetual motion machine.
Seriously though, anything's possible. I have no problem with research for the sake of research.
Random and weird software I've written.
Maybe some of them are still surprisingly stable. But you might never know since these atoms are created in extreme conditions (usually bombarding atoms of element X with atoms of element Y). This would cause quick destruction of the freshly creaed elements.
For example, a Uranium 238 is pretty stable (half-life in order of millions of years) but when a slow neutron hits it then it is pretty much gone.
Don't try to use the force. Do or do not, there is no try.
You'd think they'd pick a different name like nipponium or japanium. Mark this flamebait if you must, but in my opinion, this would be like Nigerian scientists naming it nigonium.
Its mass not weight. Its the most massive atom not the heaviest. The heaviest is near some black hole in the highest gravitational field currently unknown to man. Not quite sure how Einstein would state it. Something about its acceleration in the bending of the spacetime in that location....
Looking over at my periodic table on the wall and low i see more than 112, my table goes to 118 but misses the odd #'s over 112. I thought that 116 (ununhexium) was the most massive element and then they missed 114 (ununquadium) as well.
e xt/Uuh/key.html
h exium.html
I am not sure if 116 or 114 are "confirmed" but 116 is fairly reproducible and the article states that japans 113 is not yet "confirmed" so that would but it on par with these others. As a note 118 was reported by a Russian but was later retracted due to reproducibility problems.
Here is some info sites:
http://www.webelements.com/webelements/elements/t
http://reference.allrefer.com/encyclopedia/U/unun
** Although lead is rather non-toxic in metal form, when properly accelerated things change slightly **
you can't have an element equal to or above 117. Or is it 147? Anybody remember or have a reference handy?
Not sure where you got that, but wikipedia seems to think that anything up to (and possibly beyond) 218 is theoretically possible. You may have been thinking of the fact that 118 is the last element that will fit on the periodic table without extending it. However, the periodic table is kind of irrelevant as far as what elements are theoretically possible since it describes only electron configurations and the limiting factor in the formation of new elements is nuclear configuration.
For the reasons previously given, the limiting value, the equivalent of zero in each scalar dimension, is eight units of one-dimensional, or four units of two-dimensional, rotational displacement. In the notation used herein, the latter is a 4-4 magnetic combination. However, as indicated in Chapter 24, the destructive limit is not reached until the displacement in the electric dimension also arrives at the equivalent of the last magnetic unit. A rotational combination (atom) is therefore stable, at zero magnetic ionization, up to 4-4-31, or the equivalent 5-4-(1), which is element 117. One more step reaches the limit at which the rotational motion terminates.
--
Evan
"$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien
"The heaviest element known to science was recently discovered at Turgid University. Tentatively named administratium, element has no protons or electrons. It has one neutron, 125 assistant neutrons, 75 vice neutrons and 111 assistant vice neutrons. These 312 particles are held together by a force that involves exchange of strong-interacting particles, so-called morons.
Administratium has half-life of approximately three years but it does not decay. Instead it undergoes a reorganization in which assistant neutrons, vice neutrons and assistant vice neutrons exchange places. (Some studies suggest that the total mass actually increases after each reorganization.)
Administratium is inert. However, it can be detected as it impedes every reaction it comes in contact with. A minute amount of administratium causes reactions to take over four days to complete when it would have normally occurred in less than a second.
I doubt that we will ever figure out - and I suspect that even if we did figure out we couldn't do much about it