What is Digg?40 Comments
- slasherx, on 10/12/2007, -1/+30Memorized! One down, 117 to go. :P
- vonskippy, on 10/12/2007, -2/+20They didn't "discover" it, they CREATED it.
118 has been "known" and predicted for years - it's just the first time that an observable amount was created and verified. - Sidedish, on 10/12/2007, -1/+16Damn... and just after I bought a new periodic table of elements...
- ChileanGoD, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13@joeydoo
The number correspond to the number of protons in the nuclei.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Periodic_table - dystopianray, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12116 to go actually. Element 117 has yet to be discovered.
- fohat, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12Props for the potentially potent alliteration. Suicidal Elements? Surely a sign of the end times. Or a new punk band. Take your pick!
- thepatryn, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9@joeydoo
It's not "reserved", each element has a fixed number of protons, therefore "Element 117" is the atoms with 117 protons. Atoms with the same number of protons but different number of neutrons are called isotopes. - ImperatorTerrae, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9The elements before 118 all make themselves stable. It's called radiation. Some elements do that. They radiate. Sometimes something unstable will release a particle or two to stabilize itself. You know what those particles might sometimes be? Gamma rays.
And in regards to making an element safer, we just aren't anywhere near there yet. We'll get there when we do, but we have nothing to work on as of yet. It's like building a house without a foundation. - dvgrhl, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9Wow, I am glad scientists are so invested in pursuing facts and truths about stuff like this. Even as insignificant as it seems to most people, it's just one more piece of the puzzle into what our universe is. I am excited for that.
- smellinator, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7If it's your bedroom wall, I think we can safely say that no one will notice.
- Pharaoh777, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5So, now that we have row 7 down... time to get working on row 8.
- ImperatorTerrae, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5You would put much more energy into making one tiny atom than you could possibly get from exploding it. Imagine having to create every single particle that goes into your gasoline. Seems a lot easier just to get it from Kuwait doesn't it?
- ikak, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Shut up about slash dot... Nobody really cares where you read it first when.
- datagod, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6AssHatium.... Ah
- jeffness, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4All elements after Uranium are unstable, radioactive elements that decay into more fundamental elements with an increasingly short half-life the higher up the elemental table goes.
These elements are called transuranic elements. they are created by bombarding heavier element with a lighter element in a particle accelerator, causing a fusing of the two elements that sometimes rarely results in the heavier, radioactive and fleetingly existing element.
creating these elements might seem pointless, but it is important to science because observing the elements and how they decay and what they decay into can provide clues to physics about the nature of subatomic particles.
transuranic elements will never be stable. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Just add it in with crayon. Nobody'll notice.
- consonance, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I'm glad scientists are continuing to discover new atoms. Where else would we get names like Unununium?
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3It's not totally useless. You can power your UFO anti-grav generators with it.
Read up on a guy named Bob Lazar.
;) - alphanerd, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2We don't know that yet. Just look at look at lithium explodes in water but has anti-psychotic properties.
- jo42, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Thank you.
None of these not occuring in nature elements have been discovered - they have all been man-made so far. - Koosebane, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Sounds a lot like atmospherium.
Kro-bar will be pleased. - Growly, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Not cool. I just bought a large periodic table to decorate my wall, and it's already out of date.
- spindrift, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I know there are valid reasons why scientists believe such-and-so will create a new atom, but to my layperson's mind, it almost sounds amusingly like random crap.
"Nothing? Damn. Alright, Stevens, now YOU hold the mendeluvium wiffle bat, and I'll pitch the lump of -- oh, let's try erbium this time. Ready?" - NOFXY, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I was just about to say.. i thought i had heard the "news" about this element in high school chemistry about 4 years ago. Thanks for clearing that up! :)
- greyfade, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2that's ununpentium, not ununoctium.
- Jadael, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1You can't "make" an element stable just by trying harder. It either is too big to hold itself together or isn't.
As I understand it, they're looking for a hypothesized element that's super heavy (is composed of many protons and neutrons in it's nucleus) but has just the right amount and arrangement to hold itself in one piece instead of breaking apart into lighter elements, which break apart, which break apart, etc. - Xanin, on 10/12/2007, -5/+6I wish my lawn was emo so it would cut itself... o.0
- B0jangles, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1This has been synthesised back in 2002.
- sunnyboy06, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I thought 118 had been on periodic tables for a couple years? I've had it on mine for one year. How the hell is this new? Is it just that they've got physical proof now?
- jeffness, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0the names for the as-of-yet to be observed atoms are already created based on latin prefixes. it's kind of like a placeholder.
After they are observed, they might be givin a "real" name to honor either a person or the place where they were first observed. That has been tradition for the transuranic elements.
it's likely that the as-of-yet to be observed elements will get new names as they become observed. Here's a list of the elements that have funny latin names because they haven't been observed yet:
# 112 ununbium Uub
# 113 ununtrium Uut
# 114 ununquadium Uuq
# 115 ununpentium Uup
# 116 ununhexium Uuh
# 118 ununoctium Uuo - norashers, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0ununhexium etc is just from the latin for one one six with the suffix "-ium", which historically was the most common suffix used for naming elements (yes I do realise were quite a lot of -um elements named in the 19th cent., but the official IUPAC definition on naming new elements uses -ium now, not -um)
Same with the rest of the transuranic elements.
What nuclear physicists are looking for, is the island of stability. From the shell model of the nucleus, there are certain combinations of protons and neutrons that form stable nuclei. The shell model predicts that 2, 8, 20, 28, 50, 82, 126, 184 are the first 8 "magic numbers" nuclei with this number of protons, and or neutrons will be much more stable and have longer half-lives than their neighbouring counterparts.
e.g. Lead-208 is the most stable heavy element, because it is doubly magic (it has 82 protons and 126 neutrons, both magic numbers).
So at the moment researchers are trying to produce elements within these contraints. Hopefully they'll be able to produce elements with 184 neutrons as this is a closed shell, and so is very stable, leading to a large menagerie of potentially stable (excuse the pun) nuclei.
It's still a long way off, but next they'll set their eyes on element 120. - phantomcrawl, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1Oh I get it. So we get element 118, then years down the road they will add two more but something wont be right about them, then everyone will point at suicidal element no. 118 and say well that can't be a planet.. I mean element either
- jasonsfakename, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1I wonder how much energy is expended when it explodes. Maybe this could be used as a viable fuel some day.
- t3hCyborg, on 10/12/2007, -11/+6Interesting read, kind of disappointing that the element seems to be totally useless.
- joeydoo, on 10/12/2007, -8/+2huh? I could look it up but I'm gonna ask anyway.
Why do they have 117 reserved for something they haven't found yet? - Satanael, on 10/12/2007, -9/+1Several elements before 118 are also "suicidal" and unstable... Before trying to discover even more of these elements they should really figure out how to make the ones they already know of stable. THEN we will make some scientific leaps and bounds.
- CaseyUCF, on 10/12/2007, -11/+3don't you mean emo??
- alexmipego, on 10/12/2007, -10/+2Duplicated and a few days old.
- eplawless, on 10/12/2007, -14/+5it's interesting to see this article on digg now, having read it on slashdot sunday
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