Two groups of Russian and American scientists are competing (as usual) to find a new super heavy element, element 119. Super heavy elements are those that are above 104. This will be extremely hard because these elements are highly unstable and and only stay together for two miliseconds before decaying. The way that they make these elements is by shooting a beam of trillions of Titanium atombs at a metal plate laced with Berkelium atombs. The result should be that after a month they will get a complete atom though the chance of this happening is less than winning the bingo. After this the high tech equipment will detect the atom after it disappears (don't ask me why).
"It is not sufficient that the neutrons and the protons be at the same place simultaneously. They must have been bound together for at least a few fractions of a micro-second in order to be characterised as an atomic nucleus. One of the biggest and most exciting questions is to find out how heavy an element we are capable of creating. Even though it is extremely difficult to create elements 119 and 120, we do not believe that these elements will be the end of the periodic table," says Jon Petter Omtvedt.
It's amazing what a little competition can do for scientific progress! This blog post is very fitting to the material we are covering in class. good job alfie
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