ELEMENT 114, representing the beachhead of what might be an "island of stability" among heavy nuclei, has been successfully created, according to scientists at Russia's Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna. Artificially made elements heavier than uranium are generally unstable, but theorists have for some time thought that for elements in the vicinity of number 114 and above might well possess a configuration of neutrons and protons that makes for longer life. The Dubna result seems to be evidence for this. Made by shooting atoms of calcium-48 into a target of plutonium-244, atoms of element 114 (with a nuclear weight of 289) were detected through their decay into element 112. The lifetimes for elements 114 and 112 are 30 seconds and 280 msec, respectively. Element 113 has not yet been discovered. (News items in Science, 22 January 1999.) |