The new synthetic element is being placed under in the periodic table Radon. Its one of those elements where scientists fire a proton into the nucleus of another element and it exists for a fraction of a second. Either way, throw away your old periodic tables Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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Don't throw your old one out yet. It won't be added to the table until a second research group confirms it.
Posts: 12591 | Registered: Jan 2000
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this has bugged me for a while... while it's in principle true that these new elements technically can exist, most all of those that are in the range of 110+ are more or less useless to all but a few hundred particle physicists in the world...
I fully accept that the experiments that lead to these can be very valuable in furthering our knowledge of science, but if my periodic table stops at 100 it is going to have no impact in my life versus another one that claims those new elements that are only man-made and can only survive for 0.000001 seconds before decomposing back to something more reasonable.
Posts: 1038 | Registered: Feb 2006
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Well, in the first place, there should according to the theory be an 'island of stability' just above the elements we can make today, where the nuclei might last as long as half a minute (if I recall correctly) before decaying. So if we can do that, it's an important test of the theory that we apply to 'more reasonable' nuclei, which has implications for fusion and whatnot. In the second place, well, either you think knowledge is a good thing in itself, or you don't. If you dont, sorry, can't convince you.
Posts: 10645 | Registered: Jul 2004
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Oh, and by the way, this is not particle physics, it is *sniff* nuclear physics. Not really our kind of people at all, I'm afraid.
Posts: 10645 | Registered: Jul 2004
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Actually Grimace, each of these elements offer new and intriguing properties. This one reversed male pattern baldness, stopped global warming, created world peace, and allowed the Dixie Chicks to actually sing in Harmony. For that one small part of a second all that occured.
We are feeling much better now.
Actually there were theories that due to the geometics involved, there may be plateaus where some of these uber-elements may be stable, or have half-lives longer than a McDonald's commercial.
Posts: 11895 | Registered: Apr 2002
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oh yes Dan, I'm fully aware of the amazing possibilities because of these new elements. Really I'm not trying to argue against their discovery or even against their inclusion of the periodic table per-se. It's more an argument against the kind of people that I've met frequently that seem to think that it's a big deal to update the periodic tables in all the public schools with these new elements as soon as they come out etc...
it's kinda like saying that approximating pi to 3.14159 is wrong because we know it out to umpteen hundred digits...
Posts: 1038 | Registered: Feb 2006
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Hey, in one of my novels, I have a stable element at around 252 on the periodic table. Cuz I can... Well, sorta stable - it does get moody from time to time. Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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Californium, that which this new thing is primarily made out of, is used for:
quote:neutron startup source for some nuclear reactors, calibrating instrumentation treatment of certain cervical and brain cancers where other radiation therapy is ineffective radiography of aircraft to detect metal fatigue airport neutron-activation detectors of explosives neutron moisture gauges used to find water and petroleum layers in oil wells portable neutron source in gold and silver prospecting for on-the-spot analysis
Curium, from which Californium is made:
quote:There are few commercial applications for curium but it may one day be useful in radioisotope thermoelectric generators. Curium bio-accumulates in bone tissue where its radiation destroys bone marrow and thus stops red blood cell creation.
A rare earth homolog, curium is somewhat chemically similar to gadolinium but with a more complex crystal structure. Chemically reactive, its metal is silvery-white in color and the element is more electropositive than aluminium (most trivalent curium compounds are slightly yellow).
Curium has been studied greatly as a potential fuel for Radioisotope thermoelectric generators. Curium-242 can generate up to 120 watts of thermal energy per gram (W/g); its very short half-life though makes it undesirable as a power source for long-term use. Curium-242 is the precursor to plutonium-238 which is the most common fuel for RTGs. Curium-244 has also been studied as an energy source for RTGs having a maximum energy density ~3 W/g, but produces a large amount of neutron radiation from spontaneous fission. Curium-243 with a ~30 year half-life and good energy density of ~1.6 W/g would seem to make an ideal fuel, but it produces significant amounts of gamma and beta radiation from radioactive decay products.
There's a lot more for the other "made up" elements. They have plenty of uses, many of them, or at least combined, but part of the problem also is that most of them haven't been produced in high enough quantity to even test to find out if they have uses. This new element never would have been discovered if the Americans hadn't given the Russians that small amount of Californium to experiment with.
Poor little newbie elements.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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quote:There's antimony, arsenic, aluminum, selenium, And hydrogen and oxygen and nitrogen and rhenium, And nickel, neodymium, neptunium, germanium, And iron, americium, ruthenium, uranium...
... these are the only ones of which the news has come to Haaaaaarvard; There may be many others but they haven't been discoooovered!
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