Russian physicists at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna have with U.S. colleagues successfully synthesized a new element, a leading researcher said on Wednesday.
The newly born element will fill a "blank space" in Mendeleev's periodic table between the 116th and 118th transuranium elements.
"We have always known that throughout the centuries people have wondered where the edge of the physical world is. This limit changes all the time in accordance with our knowledge," said Yury Oganessian, the scientist coordinating the experiment.
"Fifty years ago, the elements beyond the first 100 on Mendeleev's periodic table were believed not to exist, that their half-life periods were so short that there was no sense in talking of them," Oganessian said.
"It is now clear, however, that this is not the case. These regions, earlier considered to be uninhabited, have 'islands of stability,'" he said, adding that these "islands" are inhabited with so-called super heavy elements.
Oganessian said that as yet only single atoms of the transuranium super heavy elements can be synthesized.
"We have not attained the peak of stability yet. If these elements turn out to be long-lived, they will likely exist in nature, in cosmic rays striking Earth."
The scientist did not comment on the further practical value of the experiment. Of the transuranium elements, only plutonium is widely used, as the key component in the production of nuclear weapons and as fuel for nuclear reactors.
"We have managed to expand the borders of the physical world," Oganessian said.
DUBNA (MOSCOW REGION), April 7 (RIA Novosti)
