[PatrickHenry]

Footnote in original article. Bold font added by your humble poster.

[PatrickHenry]

PING. [This ping list is for the evolution side of evolution threads, and sometimes for other science topics. FReepmail me to be added or dropped.]

[Professional Engineer]

Cool. I'm still waiting to see what the atomic numbers for Unobtainium will be.

[VadeRetro]

But physicists have predicted ‘islands of stability’ at atomic numbers 114, 120 and/or 126, where the protons and neutrons might be able to jostle themselves into a shape that minimises contact between the protons. That would allow the nucleus to hang together for much longer than its neighbours in the periodic table.

Which is still probably not very long at all by everyday commonplace expectations. ((Amateur Scientific American reader guesswork alert!!)) The nuclear strong force simply stops being strong above a certain distance. Big nuclei are unstable because they are too big for the effective strong force radius. The stability that comes from jostling into a certain shape (and keeping the mutually-repelling protons apart) would itself be subject to jostling out of shape.

[Phantom Lord]

However, the US Department of Energy recently promised $850 million towards a new rare isotope accelerator.

Is this really an appropriate expenditure of nearly $1 billion in tax payer dollars?

How about private enterprise, looking for an end product use for this bucks up the money.

[DoctorMichael]

Interesting. Bump.

[new cruelty]

For reference purposes:

I

II

III

IV

V

VI

VII

VIII

1

H1

He2

2

Li3

Be4

B5

C6

N7

O8

F9

Ne10

3

Na11

Mg12

Al13

Si14

P15

S16

Cl17

Ar18

4

K19

Ca20

Sc21

Ti22

V23

Cr24

Mn25

Fe26

Co27

Ni28

Cu29

Zn30

Ga31

Ge32

As33

Se34

Br35

Kr36

5

Rb37

Sr38

Y39

Zr40

Nb41

Mo42

Tc43

Ru44

Rh45

Pd46

Ag47

Cd48

In49

Sn50

Sb51

Te52

I53

Xe54

6

Cs55

Ba56

La57

Hf72

Ta73

W74

Re75

Os76

Ir77

Pt78

Au79

Hg80

Tl81

Pb82

Bi83

Po84

At85

Rn86

7

Fr87

Ra88

Ac89

Rf 104

Db 105

Sg 106

Bh 107

Hs 108

Mt 109

Ds 110

Uuu 111

Uub 112

Uut 113

Uuq 114

UUp 115

Uuh 116

Uus 117

Uuo 118

Ce58

Pr59

Nd60

Pm61

Sm62

Eu63

Gd64

Tb65

Dy66

Ho67

Er68

Tm69

Yb70

Lu71

Th90

Pa91

U92

Np93

Pu94

Am95

Cm96

Bk97

Cf98

Es99

Fm100

Md101

No102

Lr103

[AdmSmith]

You may read an article from the Institute in Dubna here http://flerovlab.jinr.ru/dribs/mann2.html describing the work in the search for super heavy elements. The article is not technical.

A more speculative and technical article is http://arxiv.org/abs/nucl-th/0105064 It is about the infinite nuclear matter model of atomic nuclei and the authors claim evidence of new neutron (N) magic numbers 100,152,164, new proton (Z) magic number 78 and new islands of stability around N=100, Z = 62; N=152,Z=78; and N=164,Z =90.