Fergie's Tech Blog

Scientists Announce Creation of Atomic Element, the Heaviest Yet

Rick Weiss writes in The Washington Post:

Scientists in California and Russia announced yesterday that they have created the heaviest atomic element ever made, adding a new item to the universal menu of matter known as the periodic table and revealing fresh secrets about the nature of atoms, the fundamental units of physical stuff.

The new, radioactive element, which has not yet been formally named but is being referred to variously as ununoctium (Latin for "one-one-eight"), eka-radon (beneath radon on the periodic table) or simply element 118, did not linger long.

Indeed, as with most "super-heavy" elements -- which are not known to exist in nature but have been synthesized by slamming smaller atoms together -- the three atoms of ununoctium created in the latest experiments came and went in a literal flash.

posted by Fergie @ 10/16/2006 09:30:00 PM