Super Heavy New Element

[mousepod]

Periodic table gets a new element (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8093374.stm)

The ubiquitous periodic table will soon have a new addition - the "super-heavy" element 112.
More than a decade after experiments first produced a single atom of the element, a team of German scientists has been credited with its discovery.

Element 112/Super-heavy : my new electronica band.

[Alex]

Not mentioned is one of the side reasons for hold up on recognition. Namely that Victor Ninov (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Ninov), a member of the team that first observed 112 was later implicated in producing fraudulent data at Berkeley leading to erroneous claims that the Berkeley team had observed 118 and 116. This caused them to look at the data on 112 again and they found altered records there as well though some observations withstood scrutiny.

But that put a bit more extra scrutiny into reproducing the observations. It was quite a little academic scandal at the time.

[scaeagles]

Great. Guess i have to buy a new chemistry book for my high schooler now. :)

[Cadaverous Pallor]

"This is heavy, Doc."

[Alex]

By the way, if anybody is interested in a recent history of the new elements search (last 40 years) and the methods (how, exactly do you know you created an element when there was only a few atoms at most and they survived for only milliseconds at best) then I recommend the Victor Ninov chapter of When Science Goes Wrong (http://www.amazon.com/When-Science-Wrong-Simon-LeVay/dp/B001OMHTXY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1244759264&sr=8-1) by Simon Levay.

[blueerica]

Haha, when I first saw the title of this thread last night, since mousepod posted it, I figured it was some new band.


Thanks for keepin' it unpredictable, pod. BTW, I think your thread title makes a delicious band name, as well.

[innerSpaceman]

I guess this makes me some sort of Luddite, but I disdain new additions to the periodic table in the same way I insist Pluto is still a planet, and the big dinosaur remains the Brontosaurus.


Besides, isn't it "cheating" to CREATE a new element? Why should it be in the Periodic Table if it does not exist in the natural universe?

[Moonliner]

Besides, isn't it "cheating" to CREATE a new element? Why should it be in the Periodic Table if it does not exist in the natural universe?

Ummm, exactly how old are you (http://www.chemicool.com/elements/neptunium.html)?


No element with atomic number higher than 92 occurs naturally. These elements are produced artificially in nuclear reactors or particle accelerators.

[Pirate Bill]

Why don't we just get back to the basic 4 elements: air, earth, fire, and water.

[blueerica]

Hey now, they weren't called Earth, Wind & Fire... & Water.

Do you remember... the 21st night of September?

[Alex]

Besides, isn't it "cheating" to CREATE a new element? Why should it be in the Periodic Table if it does not exist in the natural universe?

I don't know if it is "cheating" but any new elements we create at this point are essentially irrelevant to practical chemistry. That's not true of all the ones previously created though. Everything from 99 pretty much have half-lives too low to be of practical use.

The search, however, is not necessarily so irrelevant. There are schools of thought (mostly cast by the wayside now but not completely discarded) that there may be "islands of stability" out there, and allow for creation of high weight atoms that are stable enough to have practical implications beyond theoretical physics and chemistry.

[Moonliner]

Why don't we just get back to the basic 4 elements: air, earth, fire, and water.

Certainly legions of table memorizing students would flock to your cause...

[Ghoulish Delight]

I guess this makes me some sort of Luddite, but I disdain new additions to the periodic table in the same way I insist Pluto is still a planet, The difference being that "planet" is not a hard-definable word. There's no distinct line between chuncks of rock in space vs. planet. Whereas an element is an element is an element. An atom with 112 protons in its nucleus IS the 112th element. There's no debate about how it's defined, only about whether they have been created and what the exact properties are.

[innerSpaceman]

Were other elements in the periodic table created? I admit I don't know. But from what I remember of high school chemistry, the elements on the table existed in nature - though many were exceedingly rare.

[Alex]

93 through 113 have all been created. 112 was just certified, 113 hasn't yet been (only 8 atoms have been reported created).

93, Neptunium, is entirely man made but has some industrial uses and the stablest isotope has a half life of a couple million years. You've probably heard of 94 - plutonium.

And it isn't so much that these high weight atoms don't occur in nature as that they don't survive long enough to be observed.

[innerSpaceman]

Well, then I acknowledge only the first 93. :p

[Capt Jack]

Hey now, they weren't called Earth, Wind & Fire... & Water.

Do you remember... the 21st night of September?

water was sorta the Pete Best of the elements of R&B/Funk. it was there initially, but the relationship sorta evaporated due to conflict with fire and wind.

earth was unmoved by it all

:p

[Kevy Baby]

Why don't we just get back to the basic 4 elements: air, earth, fire, and water.I honor those four elements frequently.

But for non-scientific reasons.

[Strangler Lewis]

I honor the fifth element.

[Moonliner]

I honor the fifth element.

She's hot. Best costume design ever.

[flippyshark]

At one of my workplaces, (an Innoventions-esque show about Kodak at Epcot's Imagination pavilion) we had a periodic table on our stage set. Years ago, I doctored it by adding a square labeled Fg - a new element I dubbed FIGMENTIUM. (Obviously, an imaginary element). My little joke, which was nearly impossible for the audience to notice, stayed for years, until just last week. The entire set is now being re-built, and my little joke will be gone when we reopen. Oh well.

[innerSpaceman]

VfsM!


Figmentium! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! love it more than you will ever know!







(Does that mean, while Disneyland has hidden Mickeys, it's more proper for Epcot to have hidden Figments???)

[Kevy Baby]

(Does that mean, while Disneyland has hidden Mickeys, it's more proper for Epcot to have hidden Figments???)No; that's just your imagination.

[Tref]

"planet" is not a hard-definable word.

Well, that depends on how you say it.

[blueerica]

She's hot. Best costume design ever.

Multi-pass!