Scientists discover element 118 Colliding ions create the
heaviest element yet found. October 16, 2006 |October 16, 2006|
Scientists from California's Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory (LLNL) and the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research
(JINR) in Dubna, Russia, have discovered element 118. "From the
three atoms that we found, the average lifetime of 118 is 0.9
milliseconds," says LLNL team member Dawn Shaughnessy. That's
too short for scientists to study the new element's chemical
properties, but the superheavy atom sits directly beneath radon
on the periodic table. It's in the same family as helium and
neon. The researchers first saw a single element 118 atom in
2002, but the evidence wasn't conclusive. Between February and
June 2005, in experiments conducted at the JINR U400 cyclotron,
the researchers observed a tell-tale chain of decaying atoms
that establishes the element's existence. "There is only a small
probability that what we've seen is due to random events," says
LLNL team member Nancy Stoyer.