June 7, 2011
Meet the New Elements
Unofficially, the periodic table goes up to element 118. (via Wikimedia commons)
It’s official: Elements 114 and 116 do exist and belong on the periodic table.
Well, when I say “exist,” I really mean “existed.” See, when scientists make them in the lab—by bombarding radioactive plutonium or curium with calcium nuclei—these atoms, the heaviest ever to exist, live for just a fraction of a second before undergoing radioactive decay. The only way to even know that the elements have been created is by studying that decay—measuring the time intervals between each step in the decay process and the energy of the alpha particles produced. (Check out the video below for a good explanation of how the elements were created and how scientists studied them.)
The properties of elements 114 and 116 are unknown, however, and are likely to remain so. “The lifetimes of these things have to be reasonably long so you can study the chemistry—meaning, pushing a minute,” committee chair Paul Karol, of Carnegie Mellon University, told New Scientist.
The committee also evaluated research that claimed to have created elements 113, 115 and 118 in the lab, but the scientists deemed the evidence not yet strong enough to add them to the official periodic table.
Elements 114 and 116 have the unofficial names of ununquadium and ununhexium, but their discoverers will soon be able to submit their own ideas to another committee. “As long as it’s not something really weird, they will probably say it’s fine,” said Karol.
If you were going to name a new element, what would you choose? Tell us in the comments.
Sign up for our free email newsletter and receive the best stories from Smithsonian.com each week.
8 Comments »
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
[...] With the discovery of two new additions to the periodic table, announced this week, begins the hunt for two new names. The reported suggestions currently awaiting approval are flerovium, after the Soviet nuclear physicist Georgy Flyorov, and moscovium, after the Russian capital – the discoveries were made at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, 100km north of Moscow, in collaboration with scientists from the Lawrence Livermore national laboratory in California. [...]
[...] y en 2009 tuvo lugar el experimento confirmatorio.Otros elementos, 113, 115 y 118, siguen en proceso de evaluación, a la espera de evidencia más fuerte que confirme su existencia. /**/Comparte este [...]
[...] elementos, 113, 115 y 118, siguen en proceso de evaluación, a la espera de evidencia más fuerte que confirme su [...]
[...] With a find of dual new additions to a periodic table, announced this week, starts a hunt for dual new names. The reported suggestions now available capitulation are flerovium, after a Soviet chief physicist Georgy Flyorov, and moscovium, after a Russian collateral – a discoveries were done during a Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, 100km north of Moscow, in partnership with scientists from a Lawrence Livermore inhabitant laboratory in California. [...]
Colbertum (as in the you know who show) Homerium (not the Illiad, but the idiot) seem to be the most inevitable choices.
the heaviest element should be called chucknorrium, for obvious reasons
If I were to rename the elements 114 and 116, I would call them Castlenium and Beckettonium, after my two favorite t.v. Characters, Richard Castle and Kate Beckett on abc’s hit crime show called CASTLE.
Newtonium. If elements are named after distinguished scientists he seems an obvious choice.