
Periodic table gets a new element - habs
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8093374.stm
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tocomment
It seems like an element should have to be stable to be considered an element.
This only lasted a few microseconds. Couldn't you put almost any combination
of particles together for an arbitrarily short amount of time? What's special
about an element?

~~~
stratomorph
If you only counted stable substances as "elements", an awful lot of things
would have to get a different name. Uranium wouldn't be an element at all,
because even U-238 (the most common isotope, more than 99% of the stuff found
in nature, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isotopes_of_uranium>) will be reduced
by half in a few billion years.

You could set some time limit of half life, below which is considered
"completely unstable" and doesn't count, but what purpose would such an
arbitrary division serve?

Yes, you can slam particles together in any combination, but the special thing
about elements is that, for at least a few microseconds, it didn't need any
external force or containment to hold together. A few microseconds is a long
time at the subatomic scale.

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kinghajj
Wikipedia states that Ununbium (element 112) was first created in 1996, but
that team's research was disregarded. Apparently, we've synthesized elements
up to 118, except 117.

~~~
Confusion
It wasn't so much disregarded as retroactively discounted on grounds of fraud.
In retrospect, we aren't sure whether any of those elements have ever been
synthesized (though I seem to recall reading about 115 in the past year).

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bravura
"Professor Hofmann began his quest to add to the periodic table in 1976."

This really seems like a poor scientific imperative.

~~~
nostrademons
The world would look very different now if Lise Meitner had thought the same
thing in 1917.

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PieSquared
I am left to wonder though: what is the possible use of this?

I realize it's basic research (and as such am all for it), but it would be
interesting to know whether any practical uses are even planned or theorised.

~~~
ars
If we could reach the <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_of_stability> we
might get some very interesting materials.

~~~
ovi256
But given that the atoms of these elements need to be manufactured with a high
energy cost, using them to manufacture pure materials would be prohibitively
expensive. As in, physically prohibitive : we would need Kardashev level 1
energy to manufacture macroscopic amounts. I could see an use as dopants
though : this would require minuscule amounts of these elements, but it would
still be amazingly expensive.

~~~
ars
You got downmodded (I think) because it's way way too early to worry about how
much energy they take to make. Lets first make them - for all me know by the
time we manage it, fusion reactors will be cheap.

But I bumped you back up since I don't think your comment deserves a zero.

