Have there been any new chemical elements discovered in the last ten years? If so, what are they and what are they used for?
I don’t remember how long it’s been since the most recent one was discovered - at least a few years. The last one listed in my Palm Pilot periodic table is #112 - Ununbium. Once you get up to atoms this size, they’re highly unstable. There are plenty of elements of which only a few atoms have been created, and then only for fractions of a second. So they’re not really used for anything. They’re just interesting.
Check out WebElements and you will see that element 118 Ununoctium is the highest atomic numbered element so far synthesized. If you click on that symbol in the periodic table you get a page of info about it. Further clicking on History, you find out that it was synthesized in 1999.
I’m not a nuclear physicist, but wasn’t there some talk of a theoretical “island of stability” for some isotopes of some of the ultra-heavy elements ? Or was that just the voices in my head ?
S. Norman
Spiny Norman, yes there was terorized that element 114 would have to island of stability.
It was discussed here:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=44485
Yep. That’s one reason they’re still interested in making even more elements. Confirming that these islands exist also confirms certain quantum mechanical theories.
That element 114 is terrible. Pushing the other elements around, always ready to explode.
Tsk. Tsk.
Of course, the primary use for all of the elements above americium or so is to show off to all the other universities and research labs how good your lab is.