1999/06/11 by Robert F. Service · 2 citations
Engineering · #Innovations in Concrete and Construction Materials #Structural Analysis and Optimization #Spacecraft Design and Technology #Crew #Element (criminal law) #Aeronautics #Business #Engineering #Political science #Law
paper · doi:10.1126/science.284.5421.1751
openalex publication_date 1999/06/11 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/23
Step aside, element 114; there's a new heavyweight champ. Physicists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California announced earlier this week that they have created two new superheavy elements, tipping the scales at 118 and 116 protons. The new heavyweights come as something of a surprise, as standard theories had suggested that the technique used to create them—fusing two medium-weight nuclei at a relatively low energy—should top out at 112. The team's success suggests that the method may produce weightier champs, with atomic numbers 119 and beyond. “It's a very exciting result,” says Ron Lougheed, a heavy-element physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. “I suspect it will lead to a flurry of new isotopes in this region.”