Recently, a team of physicists from Russia and the United States created a never-before-seen superheavy element in the laboratory. Right now, it’s known simply as “element 117” or “ununseptium.” The experiment was led by Yuri Oganessian, a physicist at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia.

Sigurd Hofmann, a nuclear physicist in Darmstadt, Germany, told Science News that the results are “convincing.”

Those names for the element are not official. A new element doesn’t receive an official name until more teams of scientists can also make it in the laboratory. This stage of the scientific process, called verification, is important to make sure that the original experiment was not a fluke. Verification can take a long time. In February of this year, for example, element 112 finally received the official name “Copernicium,” and it had been first identified in 1996.

At the center of every atom is a nucleus, and inside the nucleus are particles called neutrons and protons. Each element has a characteristic number of protons, and inside an atom of the newly created element are 117 protons, which is why it is called “element 117.”

This illustration shows the newly found element that formed when berkelium atoms were bombarded by calcium atoms. See an animation of the bombardment.

From animation by Kwei-Yu Chu/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

The new element was created at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in a machine called a cyclotron. A cyclotron may sound like a roller coaster — and for atoms, it is a wild ride. A cyclotron smashes together different kinds of elements at super-high speeds, and scientists watch to see what happens just after the crash.

In this case, the scientists used a cyclotron to bombard atoms of berkelium with atoms of calcium. Specifically, an isotope, or variation, of berkelium (berkelium-249) was bombarded with an isotope of calcium, calcium-48. The calcium isotope had 28 neutrons compared with calcium’s usual 20. Add that to the usual 20 protons in calcium, and you have calcium-48.

Berkelium is a heavy element that does not occur in nature — it also had to be created in a laboratory. In fact, berkelium was created in a laboratory in Tennessee, then transported around the world to Russia for this experiment.

And what an experiment it was: For 150 days, the scientists smashed calcium-48 atoms into berkelium-249 atoms, and at the end of the experiment the team had created exactly six atoms of element 117, according to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where some of the other scientists on the project work. And for all that work, those six atoms didn’t last very long: After a tiny fraction of a second, they had all decayed.

A heavy atom decays when its nucleus breaks apart, and the heavy atom breaks down into smaller atoms, each having fewer protons in their nuclei than were in the original hefty atom.

It may seem like the researchers went through a lot of work for six rare atoms that quickly vanished, but the scientists are excited. They’ve been looking for element 117 for some time — both elements 116 and 118 have already been made in a laboratory, but until now no one had seen element 117.

Almost all heavy elements decay quickly, but scientists are excited because superheavy elements such as 116, 117 and 118 don’t vanish as quickly as other superheavies. Scientists have been hoping to find a group of these atoms together. Such a group would be a step toward finding an “island of stability” on the Periodic Table, and element 117 may be part of the group.

Going Deeper:

Witze, Alexandra. 2010. “Superheavy element 117 makes debut,” Science News, April 24. http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/57964/title/BREAKING_NEWS_Superheavy_element_117_makes_debut

Ornes, Stephen. 2010. “Heaviest named element is official,” Science News for Kids, March 15. http://sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/57303/title/FOR_KIDS_Heaviest_named_element_is_official

Ornes, Stephen. 2008. “The particle zoo,” Science News for Kids, June 25. http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/articles/20080625/Note2.asp

Witze, Alexandra. 2010. “The backstory behind a new element.” Science News, April 12. http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/58239/title/Deleted_Scenes__The_backstory_behind_a_new_element

Now, there’s a new kid on the block: Elements, meet copernicium.

This element was officially named on February 19, but the element itself isn’t new. German scientists made and observed it in 1996. But in the 14 years since then, other scientists have been working to study and validate the original findings. A scientific breakthrough is “validated” when other scientists can perform the same experiment and get the same results. Validation is an important part of the scientific process because it demonstrates that a scientific discovery was not a mistake.

All that hard work finally paid off when the element finally received its name, copernicium, from the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (the organization in charge of making sure chemists all over the world use the same words to mean the same things.) copernicium is named in honor of Nicolaus Copernicus, a 16th century Polish scholar who proposed that Earth orbits the sun (rather than that everything orbits Earth) and that Earth turns on its own axis. These ideas may seem obvious now, but in 16th century Europe, they were revolutionary.

The element copernicium has 112 protons and is named for the 16th century scholar Nicolaus Copernicus (pictured).

Dumelow/Wikimedia Commons

Scientists organize all the elements on a chart called the Periodic Table. Each element gets a symbol and its own number, and copernicium gets the symbol Cn and the number 112. This number means that inside every atom of copernicium are 112 protons. Protons are particles inside the nucleus, or core, of every atom. The lightest element, hydrogen, has only one proton inside each atom.

Its 112 protons make copernicium the heaviest known element with a name. It was first observed by Sigurd Hofmann, a scientist at the Center for Heavy Ion Research, or GSI, in Darmstadt, Germany. Hofmann and his team created copernicium in the laboratory when they blasted atoms of lead (each with 82 protons) with zinc isotopes, kinds of zinc atoms that each had 30 protons.

This was no easy process: You can’t just shoot one atom at another and expect the atoms to buddy up. In 1996, Hofmann and his team had to figure out a way to get all the protons together — and stick. They used a machine, called the Universal Linear Accelerator, that can accelerate atoms up to 10 percent the speed of light. After a week of working on these high-speed collisions, Hofmann’s team found copernicium — even though it quickly vanished. Most of the superheavy elements in copernicium’s neighborhood — those that are heavier than uranium — tend to be unstable, which means they decay into smaller atoms quickly.

Now, 14 years after Hofmann’s experiment, other scientists are able to make copernicium and validate Hofmann’s original work. Scientists are excited about copernicium. If such a superheavy atom can be created, then even heavier elements might be waiting in the future. “One of the exciting things is, how far can we keep going?” says nuclear chemist Paul Karol of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

Going Deeper:

Ehrenberg, Rachel. “Naming an atomic heavyweight,” Science News, February 25. http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/56651/title/Naming_an_atomic_heavyweight

Ornes, Stephen. 2010. “The hottest soup in New York,” Science News for Kids, March 3. http://sciencenewsforkids.org/articles/20100303/Note3.asp

Ornes, Stephen. 2008. “The particle zoo,” Science News for Kids, June 25. http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/articles/20080625/Note2.asp

This delicate, crystallized gold specimen was found in Leadville, Colorado.

© Denis Finnin/AMNH

Gold is a metal. It conducts electricity, and it can be shaped into sheets, long wires, or rings. Gold is an element—a substance made of one kind of atom. As an element, gold has its own square on the periodic table of chemical elements.

Gold also represents beauty and value, and it has done so for thousands of years. It’s part of our culture and history.

Why do we value gold so much? It has a distinctive color. No other metal is a shiny yellow. It’s also quite rare.

And this metal has other unique properties that help it keep its shine, as I learned on a recent trip to the new gold exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

Keeping its luster

The glitter of a gold nugget or flake immediately catches the eye. But gold’s shine, unlike that of metals such as iron, copper, or silver, is practically permanent.

For example, copper metal has a reddish color. But copper objects turn green when they react with oxygen in the air. This coating on a copper surface, called a patina, gives the Statue of Liberty her distinctive green color.

The Statue of Liberty has a greenish color because the copper metal from which it was made combined with oxygen in the air.

Photo by I. Peterson.

In contrast, gold resists corrosion. It doesn’t react with chemicals in the air or elsewhere in the environment. So it doesn’t turn green as copper does, rust the way iron does, or tarnish the way silver does.

Shaping a nugget

Gold is also a soft metal that’s easy to shape. People have been working with it for thousands of years.

Gold artifacts are among the oldest [human-made objects] that we know, says Jim Webster. He helped create the gold exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History and studies earth and planetary sciences at the museum.

Unlike many other metals, gold can be found on the ground in its pure form. Instead of having to go through many steps to isolate a metal from rock, early people could have used gold nuggets that were just lying around.

“Literally, now or 6,000 years ago, one could have picked up [a nugget] and just started hammering on it,” says Webster. Ancient people shaped gold into jewelry, statues, coins, and other beautiful objects.

Jewelry made in the shape of animals, like these gold earrings, was popular more than 2,300 years ago in ancient Greece.

© Craig Chesek/AMNH

The property that allows gold to be shaped easily is called malleability. Gold can be hammered into very thin sheets without breaking.

Experts can make a thin sheet measuring up to 100 square feet in area from just 1 ounce of gold, Webster says.

The museum’s gold exhibit features a small room whose walls and ceilings are covered with gold—a layer just 0.18 micron thick. That’s a tiny fraction of the width of a pencil point.

Sarah Webb stands in the gold room at the American Museum of Natural History. The walls and ceiling are coated with a layer of gold only 0.18 micron thick.

Photo by Anne Sasso.

Because gold is so soft, jewelers and other users often combine it with other metals to make it stronger. The purity of gold is measured in karats, and pure gold is 24 karats. Jewelry in the United States is often 14 karats, or about 60 percent gold, combined with other metals, such as silver or copper.

Rare metal

Even though gold has many special properties, the main reason for its value is its rarity.

Researchers estimate that the total amount of gold ever mined would fit into 60 tractor trailers, Webster says. This might seem like a lot—until you compare it with iron. Iron mining and smelting companies produce six times that amount every year.

Because of its value, people have made coins out of gold, and banks store gold in the form of bars. Some people collect gold coins or trade gold in international markets. Its current value is more than $600 per ounce.

Banks and gold markets can use gold bars for transactions. This bar weighs about 27 pounds and is roughly 6 inches long, 3 inches wide, and 2 inches thick. At current prices, it’s worth more than a quarter of a million dollars.

© C. Chesek/AMNH, Courtesy of Johnson Matthey, Inc.

Electronic gold

Most gold that’s mined today still goes into making jewelry. You also see it in Olympic medals and many other special awards, including the Oscar statuettes that honor movies.

But modern electronics and the journey into space have helped give gold an important place in the technology that we use every day.

Audio and video cables often have gold-coated plugs for two reasons. Gold conducts electricity better than all but two other metals, Webster says. And because gold doesn’t corrode, the surface on the plug stays clean.

For the same reasons, computer chips also often contain gold, as do a variety of other electronic components.

We’ve also launched gold into space.

A thin layer of gold covered the visor on the helmet of an astronaut on the moon. The gold layer is transparent but still keeps out the sun’s heat.

NASA

Gold reflects heat better than any other metal. The visor on an astronaut’s helmet has an ultrathin layer of gold. The layer is thin enough to be transparent, so the astronaut can still see through it. But this thin layer reflects the sun’s heat away from the astronaut.

The museum’s gold exhibit includes a helmet from the Apollo 11 mission, when astronauts first landed on the moon in 1969.

Even after thousands of years, gold remains a precious metal—one that has long been prized for its glitter and is now more useful than ever.

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