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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.

LIVERMORE, Calif., Oct. 16 (UPI) -- U.S. and Russian scientists say they have discovered the newest superheavy element -- element 118. The researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and from the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Russia made the announcement Monday. In experiments conducted at the JINR U400 cyclotron from February-June 2005, the researchers said they observed atomic decay patterns, or chains, that establish the existence of element 118. In these decay chains, previously observed element 116 is produced via the alpha decay of element 118. Element 118 is expected to be a noble...