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Monday, September 9, 2013

Element 115: No, There Aren't Any Zombies

     This week in science has been one of many breakthroughs. One prominent breakthrough is the recent confirmation of Element 115. According to National Geographic, The new element was successfully recreated by chemists from Sweden at the GSI Helmholtz Center for Heavy Ion Research in Germany. Now, I do say recreated, considering that it was first created by Russian scientists in Dubna ten years ago. You see, in order to confirm the existence of a new element, it must be able to be recreated in the same type of procedure. 

     It has to be called something other than Element 115- right? That’s true; so far it’s been called ununpentium; since it couldn't be an official element when it was discovered, they gave it a placeholder name until the element was recreated. The Russian scientists who first discovered it were contacted soon after the element was recreated, so they will have the rights to name it.

     How do you create an element? Well, you shoot two beams of atoms from two different elements at each other, of course! But you just don’t shoot them once and call it quits; the Swedish chemists shot a beam of calcium atoms at a beam of americium atoms for weeks, up to months, at a time.

     Another question then springs up: Why even create new elements in the first place?  It gives us insight about the forces that hold atoms (and everything!) together. It also nurtures the human nature for curiosity and quest for understanding. And don’t worry, Call of Duty fans, Element 115/ununpentium can’t bring back the dead (although that would be pretty cool).

-Kevin Brown

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