Sunday, February 01, 2004
"The shoals of the island of stability"
Two new elements have been synthesized by physical chemists in Russia, one (number 115) decays rapidly to the other (number 113), which is stable for about 1.2 seconds. Scientists are searching for an "island of stability" in the man-made, super-heavy regions of the periodic table where new atoms are stable and useful, as opposed to just fleeting and cool.
Thing is, they were produced at a facility of dubious repute. But more elements is a very cool concept, especially now that my periodic-table-memorizing days are over.
Similarly, Italian scientists have produced hypernuclei. Which are apparently very amazing, but I'm a biologist and don't really understand the physics here. Informative comments welcome!
Thing is, they were produced at a facility of dubious repute. But more elements is a very cool concept, especially now that my periodic-table-memorizing days are over.
Similarly, Italian scientists have produced hypernuclei. Which are apparently very amazing, but I'm a biologist and don't really understand the physics here. Informative comments welcome!
