Comments | artwdrahn: Element 118!

artwdrahn

Element 118!

Oct 15, 2006 01:27

Well holy shit.
Slashdot posted an article about some physicists have managed to make some of Element 118. Hot news as it's supposed to be one of the stable noble gases. I can't read the scientific jargon to know how long the thing actually lasted for, but I'm sure it was made in some kind of nuclear reaction so the odds are not long. Still that ( Read more... )

Comments 15

mundivagant October 15 2006, 10:42:05 UTC

If they say that it was detected through daughter elements, it means that the element decayed in a time period too short for their detectors to even register as a "blip". So basically they predicted what it would decay into, and found elemental products that matched their predictions. In other words it was anything but stable (not that this should come as a shock, really). We'll see if this one turns out to be faked, also.

raptorii October 15 2006, 17:16:51 UTC

I think he was suggesting chemical stability, not atomic.

artwdrahn October 16 2006, 08:16:31 UTC

I hope it's not a fake, cause it's cool to geek out about.

Though I was assuming that the amount time it existed was nill, more how chemically stable it was due to that it in theory is a "noble" gas.

theemoemu October 15 2006, 17:09:17 UTC

geisha's playing electric violin *does* sound cool. I'm always looking for new music w/ alternative violin parts. thanks.

raptorii October 15 2006, 17:12:23 UTC

The really big thing was that this seems to be true, unlike a previous report a few years back with falsified data. Hooray for not falsifying data!

I guess it might be chemically stable like a noble gas (as you said) although Mr. Wiki is suggesting it would probably be a dirty whore of a noble element being quite friendly and would form chemically stable oxides.

Still from what I recall the theoretical nucleic 'plateau of stability' (or whatever the fuck it's called) doesn't start until somewhere in the 120s, so chances are they were still very short lived atoms.

trillinon October 15 2006, 17:20:02 UTC

Mr. Wiki. I like that.

raptorii October 15 2006, 17:31:43 UTC

Er, right. Island of stability. Horray for forgetting things. So the possible happy elements are 114, 120, and 126, with Mr. Unbihexium-310 probably being the happiest of the three.

Ack! mediavore October 16 2006, 04:17:25 UTC

there THEY'RE

Geisha's Geishas

Oh yeah... I should go put one of the Red Paintings' albums in now, as I waste time here in bed on the internet with a glass of red wine and not focusing on homework.

moogle_master October 16 2006, 07:17:13 UTC

Why is this exciting?

dlowber October 16 2006, 07:36:42 UTC

NEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.

We all are. Perhaps you forgot.

moogle_master October 16 2006, 07:38:51 UTC

Hehehe, no I didn't forget. I honestly don't understand what's exciting about it though. Unless we can use it for some purpose, forcing it into an existence so short that we aren't able to sense it's presence directly is kinda cool, but ultimately irrelevent.

dlowber October 16 2006, 07:58:09 UTC

Until you let Gordon Freeman shove the cart containing the atoms into a giant, glowing beam. After that, things get very interesting.

I for one will not name my pet headcrab "Lamar". I think "The Destroyer of Worlds" is a great nickname for any pet.

And I won't de-tooth it either. I'm going to go around to all my most hated professors and kill them. Total deniability. "Well, a tiny beast with massive claws and teeth jumped onto Professor Dillhole's head and sucked out his brains".

No one will believe it.......until it's too late, and my zombie army rules the world! Just like the last LAN party. You should ask Jeremy about my zombie army. He really liked it.

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