The Table Periodically Changes

[Skanky Vamp]

I never knew it changed so much.

Researchers with the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia, along with the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, California, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tennessee, have recently discovered elements 115 and117. The same team, minus Tennessee, identified element 118. Although the American/Russian team claimed to have found element 113, the governing body in charge of chemistry, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, awarded the discovery of the element to the RIKEN collaboration team in Japan.

According to the IUPAC, the elements’ current names are only temporary: ununtrium, (Uut or element 113), ununpentium (Uup, element 115), ununseptium (Uus, element 117) and ununoctium (Uuo, element 118). The teams who discovered the elements have the privilege of naming them. Element 113 will be the first one named by a team from Asia.

These elements were verified on Dec. 30. Prior to this, the most recent elements slotted into the periodic table were 114 and 116, back in 2011.​

 

[ILLYRIAN]

Damn, and I thought Uup, element 115 was about my knackered out old computer, a Pentium 75.

 

[Ethan Reigns]

I was always waiting for Pn (Pandemonium) and Dl (Delerium). Yeah, let's make some delirium nitrate or pandemonium phosphate. I believe one of the groups that actually discovered transuranium elements applied for those names and got turned down. If someone delivered some of these elements via an air duct and announced it, the result would be pandemonium.

 

[Blaze]

I can't wait to hear the new names.

As a side note, although textbooks will try to convince you that you must buy their new shiny edition with the new table for that extra 200$, the addition of new elements does not change basic chemistry. New elements are the kinds that can only be synthesized in lab for a few seconds.

 

[Skanky Vamp]

As a side note, although textbooks will try to convince you that you must buy their new shiny edition with the new table for that extra 200$, the addition of new elements does not change basic chemistry. New elements are the kinds that can only be synthesized in lab for a few seconds.

I plead ignorance so I dont care how this question sounds... but if it can only be synthesized for a few seconds why does it make it important? Can you 'do' anything with in in those few seconds that are meaningful?

 

[GwenRaiden]

I used to make things melt, explode and smell of farts in chemistry. I hope the new elements' names are symbolic of their use.
Eg. Fa(rty) Bu(rnt table) An(gry teacher).

I miss school!

 

[Blaze]

I plead ignorance so I dont care how this question sounds... but if it can only be synthesized for a few seconds why does it make it important? Can you 'do' anything with in in those few seconds that are meaningful?

Not a stupid question, I'm not even sure myself what they do with the elements in lab, not my kind of chemistry. Those people are really specialized. But it's quite a big discovery, and one that is also very important. Even if those elements can be made artificially, they still exist and they are real. At an atomic level this is huge, just as big as discovering a new solar system I guess. I couldn't explain the importance myself, but they're filling in a missing piece of a puzzle. It's not something that will be used in your regular lab anytime soon, but if you can find a physisist or physical chemist, I'm sure they could tell you more. (Side note, the nobel prize winner last year was a scientist that did work on neutrinos, work at the atomic level will solve many mysteries in the future).
 
Also, if you're interested, google synthetic elements. Those elements likely existed at some point, but are too unstable to be found in nature.

 

[vellavu]

I plead ignorance so I dont care how this question sounds... but if it can only be synthesized for a few seconds why does it make it important? Can you 'do' anything with in in those few seconds that are meaningful?

Not a stupid question, I'm not even sure myself what they do with the elements in lab, not my kind of chemistry. Those people are really specialized. But it's quite a big discovery, and one that is also very important.

I have a theoretical physics degree so I will try to answer it. It's not useful in industry, but it's important.

One of the application of synthesizing "useless" elements, is that their features (half-life, radiation type, etc) serve as data samples for the QCD theory (theory needed for describing the atom core and other exotic particles).

Our daily life and normal experiment facilities can not provide any tests/data to refine QCD, so the data is kinda precious. Any kind of new real-world data like this is welcome by physicists.

 

[Skanky Vamp]

I have a theoretical physics degree

I'm sorry.. I have to do this!! You are the first real person I can do this to and I may never get the chance again...

So.. do you have a theoretical physics degree or a degree in theoretical physics?

Ha. I am chuckling away.. You made my day. That's one quip checked off of my bucket list.