Slashdot Mirror
Copernicium Confirmed As Element 112
Several sources are reporting that the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry has confirmed Copernicium as element 112 on the periodic table of elements with the symbol Cn. "The naming of the new element will be the culmination of a long, fraught journey involving fierce competition, dashed hopes, clever detective work and even a brush with scientific misconduct. With a nucleus containing 112 protons — 20 more than uranium, the heaviest of the naturally occurring elements — it will be the weightiest atom whose existence has been confirmed so far."
I think there was a commercial on QVC last night for some jewelry made of this stuff.
Actually, a lot more than you'd think. First, there's the analyzing of Emission Spectrum from distant worlds and stars. Second, there have been several probes to the moon, mars and other celestial bodies that have attempted to (and some succeeded) look at and identify the chemical makeup of what it was looking at. Third (as if that wasn't enough) we have theoretical physicists that can (and do) calculate the makeup of the rest of the known (and known) universe. So surely it does matter to SOME people...
If a man isn't willing to take some risk for his opinions, either his opinions are no good or he's no good
Avatar wasn't the first use of that, they actually reused a name that had been used in literature for decades...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unobtainium
It's theorised that somewhere in the 1xx range lies one or more "islands of stability", where one or more undiscovered heavy elements exist with either very long half-lives, or stable nuclei.
.cn is the country code top-level domain for China. He was making a joke. /whoosh
"Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much." - Oscar Wilde
Interestingly enough, uranium isn't the heaviest naturally occurring element. It occurs in two ways. One is extremely small amounts of natural Pu-244 The other is muromontite, which is a beryllium and sometimes uranium-containing form of allanite, making it a natural breeder reactor.
Did you really name your son "Robert');DROP TABLE Students;--"?
Since plutonium, element 93, is found in uranium ores (being bred there by neutron capture) and Pu-244 (half-life 80.8 million years) has also survived in detectable quantities from the formation of the Earth, uranium is not the heaviest natural element on Earth.
Starships were meant to fly, Hands up and touch the sky - Nicky Minaj
Hey jackass, how many people do we have trying to identify new elements anywhere else besides Earth?
Actually, Helium was discovered not on Earth, but the Sun.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law
Naming, yes. The summary is badly informed! The synthesis of element 112 has been confirmed for quite a while. The only story here is that IUPAC has officially endorsed a name for it.
The element of surprise?
It has an atomic weight of: 0.o
Well, England is only one of the nations of United Kingdom. there's also Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland (although that's in dispute for a while). Scotland and NI already have their own devolved parliaments and Wales will get one at one point. I'm sure you'd be very popular in the north of the border and call the place England.
So, to nitpick, since transuranics use the actual form of scientist's names, it should really be Kupfernigkium, Kf.
(Otherwise, Einsteinium would have to be Unopetrium.)
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
Heaviest -> most massive, Densest -> most dense. No better wording needed. Especially given that it specifies "elements" and not "single element materials"
You did remember to specify that your densities were at STP didn't you?