Posted on 07/25/2024 9:27:52 AM PDT by AdmSmith
Scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California, announced today that they have for the first time used a beam of titanium to make a known superheavy element, livermorium — element 116. After upgrading the lab’s equipment, the team plans to use similar techniques to try to produce element 120. The heaviest element that has been made so far is oganesson, element 118, which was first synthesized in 2002.
(Excerpt) Read more at nature.com ...
I agree. Show me what possible use these heavy elements have? Exotic power sources, faster that light travel, fusion power control? And at what cost? Talk about adding to the national debt!!
name it Trumpium after Trump
Elements past 116 have half life’s less than one second. Most of the man made elements have only been just a few atoms. Their only use is to honor some famous fellow or help determine the half life times and the way it decays.
The science and engineering necessary to conduct the experiment will have huge currently unforeseen payoffs in the future. Increasing the knowledge of nuclear processes will pay off in future uses of nuclear power. It will also pay off in the science and engineering of materials. Basic science rarely has an immediate payoff.
All, my career I have gotten copies of, or now downloaded both academic and government research reports. Only rarely is the intent of their research directly useful to me. However, the technology they used to generate the work almost always is.
The other benefit is the training this activity gives to young scientists and engineers.
I guess you want to give the future to the Chinese!
That is an interesting theory. Whether it exists or not remains to be seen.
“The heaviest element that has been made so far is oganesson, element 118, . . .”
Oganesson actually seems pretty cool - although it’s in the inert gas family, it’s predicted to be a very reactive metal (so much for chemical periodicity!). Of course that supposition is purely theoretical, as they’ve only made 5 atoms of the stuff, and it’s unlikely anybody is going to make enough to do any chemistry on anyway. Plus it doesn’t stick around long (half-life is a fraction of a second, depending on the isotope).
A neutron star is essentially an atomic nucleus a few miles in radius. When one neutron star merges with another big chucks splatter into space then start breaking up like popcorn. Just about any element imaginable is flung into space. Most quickly decay. It was estimated that the neutron star merger that was detected by gravity waves recently made up to 3 Earth masses of gold.
Cyclotronium?
Unless, of course, they reside in the Island of Stability.
~~~
Can they get voted off the island?
Maybe they should form alliances with other elements
I have one piece of elk liver left in the freeze. It’s time has come.
Why would an element have to be “naturally occurring”? In a supernova, there are probably all sorts of elements created that have very short half lives and decay long before they can be detected. Studying the half-life, mass and other properties (e.g. the decay history) of heavier elements gives clues and insights into the nature of the atomic nucleus, and nuclear physics.
We are still learning
Compared to what? I'm not buying it.
Increasing the knowledge of nuclear processes will pay off in future uses of nuclear power.
We're not getting any new nuclear power to speak of, for which the technology in small plants has been available for decades.
I guess you want to give the future to the Chinese!
Then you guessed wrong. I prefer engineers focus upon generating wealth. This investment has been a black hole for forty years. I'd even rather see fusion research, which has all the potential ancillary benefits you described. This one is a loser.
NorthMountain ~ That is an interesting theory. Whether it exists or not remains to be seen.
I guess we'll have to sail there to find out...
From a Mother-in-law’s meal ?
Atomic symbol: Kh
Probably no use in themselves. Studying the half-life, mass and other properties (e.g. the decay history) of heavier elements gives clues and insights into the nature of the atomic nucleus, and nuclear physics.
We are still learning. Curiosity and intellectual restlessness are among the things that makes us human. Studying the stars, as Galileo, Copernicus, Ptolemy, and Kepler did, had little practical value, except for casting horoscopes. Since there were paying customers, including emperors and kings who relied on astrologers, there was some value in it, I suppose, though the scientific value of horoscopes is nugatory. But the desire to understand the stars was a necessary first step to making cell phones, satellites, HDTV, computers, electrical generators, GPS, and all the other things that enrich modern life.
Yes, you can be completely ignorant of positional astronomy, and a fine engineer, but is was through the stars that we arrived at where we are today. And we still have much to learn.
You sound like a democrat or liberal.
(snicker, snicker)
I remember that episode!
NorthMountain ~ That is an interesting theory. Whether it exists or not remains to be seen.
I guess we'll have to sail there to find out...
Haven't heard that one in ages .
Kind of prefer this one -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEO6gYCFbr0
Coincidentally, the sailing reference is quite subject matter appropriate in more ways than one........
There are books on Mandarin in the library.
I suggest you go check them out.
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