Four elements “superheavy” now completed the Periodic Table – Diario Uno

A month before he died, Oliver Sacks confessed in “My periodic table”, an article in “The New York Times” in July 2015, was fascinated since childhood by physical , a branch of science in which “there is no life, nor death.” When his time was about to be consumed, the famous writer said neurologist and feel relief in the mysterious order of chemical elements, which he defined as “small emblems of eternity.” Not only the components of a star can end up being part of the body of a person, but that where these chemicals are always retain an order, and have a specific chemical properties.

The scientific community extended recently what it is known about this order. On December 30, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), a body comprising representatives of national chemical societies worldwide, announced the discovery of four chemical elements to complete the seventh row of the periodic table.

“As a global organization responsible for providing scientific expertise and objectivity, and to develop the basic tools to implement and communicate chemical knowledge to benefit humanity, enorgullee of IUPAC make this announcement in relation to the elements 113, 115, 117 and 118, and the completion of the seventh row of the periodic table, “he said solemnly president of the organization, Mark C. Cesa.

After years of working in laboratories of the highest technology, in which even resorted to particle accelerators, the organization and recognize the hard work of several teams of researchers from Japan, Germany and the United States. All this dedication bore fruit in the form of four elements that have no name yet and is known as elements 113, 115, 117 and 118 (according to their atomic number, a magnitude that indicates the number of protons in its nucleus).

While the discoverers decide what to name and try to study their properties, such research could allow understand a little better how the atoms inside work, and this could have a myriad of applications. In addition, they facilitate that later new heavier elements are produced, with a greater number of protons in the nuclei, such as 119 or 120.

Sun on Earth

“It is a basic research proving it is possible to obtain cores of superheavy elements by collisions between nuclei of lighter atoms, “explains Bernardo Herradón CSIC research scientist and member of the Spanish Royal Society of Chemistry. “On the other hand, have superheavy chemical elements is important to know the balance of forces (interactions) acting in the nucleus of atoms,” he adds.

Therefore, it is possible that the new findings possible to produce new elements with properties unimaginable today “‘re talking about research at the frontier of chemical , particle physics and high energy physics, etc; All these fields have applications in our daily lives, “explains Herradón.

And with this type of experiment details that could help bring about nuclear fusion are learned, one possible way to emulate the operation Sun on Earth and to get cheap, clean and almost limitless energy.

However, as explained Paul J. Karol , a member of the IUPAC which has participated in the approval of these new elements, the process is not simple. It requires colliding heavy nuclei of lighter elements with a high speed, which is energy intensive, and as a result only a small number of radioactive atoms disintegrate immediately obtained. Far from dust samples obtained a new element, scientists must settle for analyzing the energy released in these collisions between particles to see if they are against something new or not.

Limit stability

The question now apart trying to study the properties of these elements and name them, is to continue producing superheavy atoms “Current technology has trouble producing visible amounts of new elements, but this could change” adventure IUPAC member. Explains perhaps even could be reached the “island of stability” a limit set in the element 120 and from which the atoms would be stable and could have interesting applications ffmuy.

Anyway, even in the era of superheavy atoms Periodic Table devised by the Russian chemist Dimitri Mendeleev in 1869 remains in force. The great achievement of this scheme is that understood the order of atoms: not only can sort items according to their chemical properties, but also predict how will those who follow. When the scientist published his table 63 chemical elements were known. Today there are already 118. If we can decipher the order of atomic nuclei, what will be achieved in the future?