- Russian and American nuclear physicists
say they've created a new ultra-heavy element that may open the door to
a host of new elements once considered impossible.
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- If confirmed, it would mark a major goal
of nuclear physics: to create an element far heavier than any in nature
that would survive for long enough to permit scientific study, the New
York Times reports in Friday's edition.
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- The journal Science published a brief
account of the work Friday.
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- The as-yet-unnamed element was created
at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research at Dubna, Russia, under Yuri
Oganessian, a nuclear physicist.
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- The American participants in the experiment,
from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, say that even
though the news is slightly premature -- the results haven't yet been formally
published -- the evidence for the creation of the element was very strong.
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- It appears, they say, that scientists
bombarded a rare isotope, or form, of plutonium with atoms of a rare isotope
of calcium to create a single atom of the new element.
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- The nucleus of a calcium projectile atom
fused with the nucleus of a target plutonium atom to form an element with
114 protons and about 184 neutrons in its nucleus. The resulting atom of
Element 114 survived for about 30 seconds, they say, a long time co mpared
with the decay rates of most other heavy man-made elements.
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- Of the 92 elements in the basic periodic
table, all but two, technetium and promethium, are found in nature. Hydrogen
is the lightest on the table, with only one proton in its nucleus, and
uranium, with 92 protons, is the heaviest.
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- With the exception of a tiny amount of
natural plutonium, all elements with proton numbers greater than 92 must
be created. With Element 114, 21 artificial elements were made.
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- Albert Ghiorso of Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory in Calif., co-creator of 12 artificial elements beyond uranium,
says, "It's one of the greatest achievements in physics."
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- Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, who
is in charge of national physics labs, says, "If confirmed, the synthesis
of Element 114 will create an important new opportunity to study the physics
of extremely heavy elements."
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