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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."
Now there will never be a chinesium (although i guess we could re-name lead).
<troll/>
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.
On the other hand, they had a pretty interesting scientific backstory for the movie. When I was watching the movie, when the guy set down the "unobtanium" on a platform and it floated, I immediately thought, "Huh... I bet that's supposed to be a room-temperature superconductor. Which would explain the demand." And indeed, that's exactly the intent. According to the backstory, part of the reason for the intense initial interest in the moon was the very high magnetic field strength it displayed. And since superconductors expel magnetic fields, leading to stable levitation, the floating mountains and continents are actually scientifically plausible in such a scenario. The very high magnetic field and the presence of the moon orbiting in the radiation belt of a gas giant leads to very high levels of ionizing radiation at the poles and at the intense local distortions in the magnetic field from the "unobtanium" -- to the degree that they're not just deadly, but also lead to a large current flowing through the planet.
The explanation for the mineral name is that scientists frustrated on Earth used began using the name "unobtanium" in reference to high temperature superconductors (before stable versions were found on Pandora) that it stuck.
Did you really name your son "Robert');DROP TABLE Students;--"?
Exactly you can find it right between the unaffordium and the baloneyum.
Science advances one funeral at a time- Max Planck
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
Yeah, I've used Unobtainium for years, and everyone here at work knows what's meant. (Admittedly, I'm an Engineer.) Okay, not quite true, as two foreign Engineers didn't know what it was.
In Avatar, Unobtanium was the McGuffin -- it didn't matter what it was, just that there was a reason that Homo Sapiens was on a different, hostile planet that wasn't for xenorelations. Water's plentiful on comets, any minerals would be easier to get from asteroids, since there's way less of a gravity well, and so the only reason we'd be there is either to talk to aliens or to get a rare material.
A room-temperature superconductor is pretty much the Holy Grail of Physics.
It doesn't explain why the humans didn't just take the mountains and / or use orbital bombardment.
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ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
Exactly you can find it right between the unaffordium and the baloneyum.
Bloody Yanks - those of us who remember the Queen's English know it's spelled 'bolognium'...
... or was that 'bologniminium?'
Crumb's Corollary: Never bring a knife to a bun fight.