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."

Comments

Island of Stability

[Schezar]

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.

Re:Island of Stability

[crow]

Interesting. For the non-physicists here, the wikipedia article on the Island of stability is more accessible.

From that article:

The term "particularly stable" is in comparison to the half-lives of slightly lighter or heavier elements; the half-lives of elements in the island of stability are still expected to be measured in fractions of a second, or perhaps measured in days, though some theoretical possibilities include much longer periods.

Mass

[vijaya_chandra]

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.

Re:Whoah!

[Billy the Mountain]

Wow, that's a lot of zinc! I bet that galvanized their research!

BTM

The heaviest element

[Muhammar]

"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.