soulxtc
October 17th, 2006, 10:37 AM
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - American and Russian scientists announced on Monday that they had discovered a superheavy element, known as 118, albeit one that has only existed in three different atoms lasting a fraction of a second over months of experiments.
Scientists discovered the last naturally occurring element on the periodic table in 1925 but have since sought to create new heavier elements.
In the latest experiments, scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California and the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia, bombarded californium with calcium ions to create 118 -- the heaviest ever created in such experiments.
"I think of this like any other journey to a new place. Why do you want to go to the moon? Why do you want to go to the top of Mount Everest?" Nancy Stoyer, a member of the Livermore team, said in explaining the significance of the discovery. "Finding it is something new, it is something interesting.
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=scienceNews&storyID=2006-10-16T200828Z_01_N16231085_RTRUKOC_0_US-SCIENCE-ELEMENTS.xml
Scientists discovered the last naturally occurring element on the periodic table in 1925 but have since sought to create new heavier elements.
In the latest experiments, scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California and the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia, bombarded californium with calcium ions to create 118 -- the heaviest ever created in such experiments.
"I think of this like any other journey to a new place. Why do you want to go to the moon? Why do you want to go to the top of Mount Everest?" Nancy Stoyer, a member of the Livermore team, said in explaining the significance of the discovery. "Finding it is something new, it is something interesting.
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=scienceNews&storyID=2006-10-16T200828Z_01_N16231085_RTRUKOC_0_US-SCIENCE-ELEMENTS.xml