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Last Thursday, the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab announced it confirmed the artificial creation of element 114, which was first synthesized nearly a decade ago by Russian scientists.
But if Berkeley scientists weren’t the first to make it, why is it so exciting? Because of the so-called “island of stability.” Basically, the island is a group of superheavy elements whose half-lives last longer than the period at the end of this sentence. Wait, no, wrong analogy—those whose half-lives could hopefully be on much more useful time scales compared to most already-named superheavy elements.
But since the Berkeley group only confirmed the discovery made by an earlier group, they won’t get naming rights. So don’t expect any new Californiums or Berkeliums to show up on the front page of the papers sometime soon.
Image Source: invictuzz688 under Creative Commons
Superheavy Element 114 Confirmed: A Stepping Stone to the Island of Stability [LBNL]
Berkeley Lab confirms new superheavy element [SF Business Times]
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