The hunt for superheavy elements has focused banging various heavy nuclei together and hoping they'll stick. In this way, physicists have extended the periodic table by manufacturing elements 111, 112, 114, 116 and 118, albeit for vanishingly small instants. Although none of these elements is particularly long lived, they don't have progressively shorter lives and this is taken as evidence that islands of nuclear stability exist out there and that someday we'll find stable superheavy elements.
But if these superheavy nuclei are stable, why don't we find them already on Earth? Turns out we do; they've been here all along. The news today is that a group led by Amnon Marinov at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem has found the first naturally occurring superheavy nuclei by sifting through a large pile of the heavy metal thorium.
What they did was fire one thorium nucleus after another through a mass spectrometer to see how heavy each was. Thorium has an atomic number of 90 and occurs mainly in two isotopes with atomic weights of 230 and 232. All these showed up in the measurements along with a various molecular oxides and hydrides that form for technical reasons.
But something else showed up too. An element with a weight of 292 and an atomic number of around 122. That's an extraordinary claim and quite rightly the team has been diligent in attempting to exclude alternative explanations such as the presence of exotic molecules formed from impurities in the thorium sample or from the hydrocarbon in oil used in the vacuum pumping equipment). But these have all been ruled out, say Marinov and his buddies.
What they're left with is the discovery of the first superheavy element, probably number 122.
What do we know about 122? Marinov and co say it has a half life in excess of 100 million years and occurs with an abundance of between 1 and 10 x10^-12, relative to thorium, which is a fairly common element (about as abundant as lead).
Theorists have mapped out the superheavy periodic table and 122 would be a member of the superheavy actinide group. It even has a name: eka-thorium or unbibium. Welcome to our world!
This may well open the flood gates to other similar discoveries. Uranium is the obvious next place to look for superheavy actinides. I'd bet good money that Marinov and his pals are eyeballing the stuff as I write.
Kewl.
Only two things are infinite - the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the universe: Albert Einstein.
But something else showed up too. An element with a weight of 292 and an atomic number of around 122. That's an extraordinary claim and quite rightly the team has been diligent in attempting to exclude alternative explanations such as the presence of exotic molecules formed from impurities in the thorium sample or from the hydrocarbon in oil used in the vacuum pumping equipment). But these have all been ruled out, say Marinov and his buddies.
This mean they just discovered a whole new element?! That's awesome!
Discovering a new element isn't much in the way of news - what's neww is that they've discovered a naturally occuring superheavy element. That high up the periodic table they tend to be articficial and extremely short-lived.
Only two things are infinite - the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the universe: Albert Einstein.
There is only one way of avoiding the war – that is the overthrow of this society. However, as we are too weak for this task, the war is inevitable. -L. Trotsky, 1939
They found a few atoms is a pile of thorium? It will take them for ever to get enough to form an ingot of it.
What does defeat mean to you?
Nothing it will never come. Death before defeat. I don’t bend or break. I end, if I meet a foe capable of it. Victory is in forcing the opponent to back down. I do not. There is no defeat.
Really, that is astounding. The amount of info that could be gleaned from such a nucleus regarding GUT forces - specifically from the fact that this nucleus doesn't break down instantly - is awesome.
I can't stand nothing dull
I got the high gloss luster
I'll massacre your ass as fast
as Bull offed Custer
"You've all been selected for this mission because you each have a special skill. Professor Hawking, John Leslie, Phil Neville, the Wu-Tang Clan, Usher, the Sugar Puffs Monster and Daniel Day-Lewis! Welcome to Operation MindFuck!"
It's a naturally occuring superheavy element. It says it right in the title. If this claim is valid it could be the biggist thing in elemental science since Uranium.
"You've all been selected for this mission because you each have a special skill. Professor Hawking, John Leslie, Phil Neville, the Wu-Tang Clan, Usher, the Sugar Puffs Monster and Daniel Day-Lewis! Welcome to Operation MindFuck!"
That means that everything we know about super heavy elements may be wrong.
Its also a new element (which means there are 4 new elements) that except for that one warp drive in ENT that the crew ran into and Seven Day's time traveling ship, is unheard of.
Oh, come on. I failed chemistry and even I know what a big deal this is. Before this, heavy elements even close to this were all artificially created and unstable. This is larger then anything we've artificially created, and it's stable.
Oh, come on. I failed chemistry and even I know what a big deal this is. Before this, heavy elements even close to this were all artificially created and unstable. This is larger then anything we've artificially created, and it's stable.
I won't be satisfied with anything less than the omega particle.
Omega isnt a element it's a molecule... Still be cool to have... unless it destroyed us.
What does defeat mean to you?
Nothing it will never come. Death before defeat. I don’t bend or break. I end, if I meet a foe capable of it. Victory is in forcing the opponent to back down. I do not. There is no defeat.
