Element 118, Heaviest Ever, Reported for 1,000th of a Second

Tuesday, October 17, 2006
06:53 PM
wish my heaviness only lasted that long

Element 118, Heaviest Ever, Reported for 1,000th of a Second: "Xeni Jardin:
Snip from an article by James Glanz at the New York Times:

A team of Russian and American scientists said yesterday that it had created the heaviest element ever seen in a laboratory, a dab of matter that lasted for less than one-thousandth of a second but would add an entry at the farthest reaches of the periodic table and suggest that strange new elements may lie beyond.

By convention, the substance remains the Baby Doe of elements until its existence is confirmed at other laboratories. For now, the new substance will be principally known as element 118 for the number of protons in its nucleus, more than in any other element occurring naturally or produced in the laboratory.

Link, and Video of Mr. Glanz talking about the story. Image: Calcium, with 20 protons, being accelerated into Californium, with 98 protons. (Sabrina Fletcher and Thomas Tegge/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory).

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(Via Boing Boing.)