Thursday 8 April 2010

117 will soon need a name!

I'd propose Audiozobium, but for some reason, I get the impression this would not be well received. But how about Iggypopium? Or even better, Ziggystardustium? Wouldn't that be cool?

A team of Russian and American scientists has discovered a new element that has long stood as a missing link among the heaviest bits of atomic matter ever produced. The element, still nameless, appears to point the way toward a brew of still more massive elements with chemical properties no one can predict.

The team produced six atoms of the element by smashing together isotopes of calcium and a radioactive element called berkelium in a particle accelerator about 75 miles north of Moscow on the Volga River, according to a paper to be published in the journal Physical Review Letters. The superheavy element 117, which is made of atoms containing 117 protons, is roughly 40% heavier than lead.
...
Element 117 fills the final gap on the list of observed elements up to 118. If the latest discovery is confirmed elsewhere, the element will receive an official name and take its place in the periodic table of the elements. For the moment, the discovery will be known as ununseptium, a very unwhimsical Latinate placeholder that refers to the element’s atomic number, 117. 

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