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As the Chase For New Elements Slows, Scientists Focus on Deepening Their Understanding of the Superheavy Ones They Already Know (nature.com)
From a report: The quest to extend the periodic table is not over, but it is grinding to a halt. Since Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev published his periodic table 150 years ago, researchers have been adding elements to it at the average rate of one every two or three years. Having found all the elements that are stable enough to persist naturally, researchers started to create their own, and are now up to element 118, oganesson. Although they still hope to find more, they agree that prospects of venturing beyond element 120 are dim.
"We're reaching the area of diminishing returns in the synthesis of new elements, at least with our current level of technology," says Jacklyn Gates, who works on heavy-element chemistry at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California. As a result, research on the edge of the periodic table is shifting focus. Rather than chasing new elements, scientists are going back to deepen their understanding of the superheavy ones -- roughly speaking, those with an atomic number above 100 -- that they have already made.
Studying the chemical properties of these elements could show whether the most massive ones obey the organizing principle of the table -- which sorts elements into groups with similar behaviours on the basis of periodically recurring patterns of chemical reactivity. And although the heaviest elements decay in less than the blink of an eye, researchers still hope that they might arrive at the fabled 'island of stability': a hypothesized region of element-land where some superheavy isotopes -- atoms that have the same number of protons in their nucleus, but differing numbers of neutrons -- might exist for minutes, days or even longer.
"We're reaching the area of diminishing returns in the synthesis of new elements, at least with our current level of technology," says Jacklyn Gates, who works on heavy-element chemistry at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California. As a result, research on the edge of the periodic table is shifting focus. Rather than chasing new elements, scientists are going back to deepen their understanding of the superheavy ones -- roughly speaking, those with an atomic number above 100 -- that they have already made.
Studying the chemical properties of these elements could show whether the most massive ones obey the organizing principle of the table -- which sorts elements into groups with similar behaviours on the basis of periodically recurring patterns of chemical reactivity. And although the heaviest elements decay in less than the blink of an eye, researchers still hope that they might arrive at the fabled 'island of stability': a hypothesized region of element-land where some superheavy isotopes -- atoms that have the same number of protons in their nucleus, but differing numbers of neutrons -- might exist for minutes, days or even longer.
simply set up a chemical processing plant on mars
Scientists' Mothers Decline Request for New Elements, Says You have Perfectly Good Ones You haven't even Researched Yet
'Cause I like humping your mommy,
and getting caught by your dad.
If you're not into poota,
and you have half a nad.
If you like humping butts at midnight in the smooth anal gape,
then i'm the one that you searched for.
Come to me, and assrape!
-Helen Gurley Brown
... they're just big-boned.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
The BIBLE is the only source of truth in this world. Science is a lie, told to you by liberals trying to control your lives. They will use it to take your video games from you, to take your guns from you, to take your unborn children from you. Reject science, reject the lies of anti-video game bigotry, of global warming hoax, of you being a descendent of a monkey, of women being the "equal" of men. Adopt truth of the bible, the faith in the Lord to make you live eternally in real truth.
The big guy wants one named "Trumpium".
"Best element ever, most protons, believe me. I have the biggest protons and know the most about them. And I'm cancelling Berkelium. #FakeElement with rigged electrons. That loser liberal city didn't vote for me because they are full of baby-raping voting illegals."
As usual none of the other countries even made it to the Super Bowl, lol! Loosers! America is best!
#MAGA #Trump2020
So the idea of finding an 'island of stability' after all those shrinking half-lives didn't pan out, then?
I wonder if large elements become unstable because they're approaching the size at which quantum effects no longer manifest. I imagine it's known, but also wonder why certain non-isotopes are radioactive.
Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
really :)
I said:
> so adding protons doesn't help.
Its neutrons, not protons - it should have been
Neutrons stabilize the nucleus by adding more strong force without electric force, but again size matters, a proton at one extreme of a uranium nucleus feels almost no strong force from the other side so adding *neutrons* doesn't help.
Where superheavy elements form the basis of advanced technology
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
I'm not sure, but Mirkheim, by Poul Anderson, may contain similar elements (pun intended).
Both great book.s
Absolute statements are never true
The quest for Unobtanium continues
Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.
The government who you pay all of your hard earned taxes to has used your tax dollars to procure many super heavy elements , in all forms (solid, liquid, gasses)
However due to "national security" (aka an easy excuse to steal all of your tax dollars and keep all the high science goodies to ourselves) they don't release the science to the public.
The government, who you pay all your tax dollars to, steals all the science, puts it in the military, and you get nothing :) good deal huh?
I mean, why give everyone free energy and anti-gravity? Then we might not have governments who can steal from us.
Can we name one of them Felonium? That way, we can show that even the realm of physics has (puts on shades) a criminal element.
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