Jun 022012
 

The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry have granted official names to elements 114 (Flerovium) and 116 (Livermorium). Both are of course synthetic elements; Flerovium has an isotope with a half-life measurable in seconds, which is a really long time for these super-heavy elements. It is thought that there might be an “island of stability” for the super heavy elements, with elements 114, 120 and 126 theoretically having isotopes with half-lives measurable in years, perhaps millions of years. But it’s difficult enough mashing together atomic nuclei to get the right number of protons… getting the right number of neutrons as well is a hell of a trick.

Whenever you see a sci-fi flick where someone analyzes a bit of alien spacecraft wreckage and blathers something about it being composed of some mysterious, unknown element… if you want to imagine scientific plausibility, you have to imagine that the aliens are cranking out industrial quantities of these super-heavy elements.

 Posted by at 1:36 am