# New elements **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 11, 2001, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-elements/65043 "2001-05-11T01:29:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![insider](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/bbe5ce/32.png) [@insider](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/insider)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2001, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-elements/65043/1 "2001-05-11T01:29:22Z")
Have there been any new chemical elements discovered in the last ten years? If so, what are they and what are they used for? ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2001, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-elements/65043/2 "2001-05-11T01:33:47Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2001, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-elements/65043/3 "2001-05-11T04:02:44Z")
Check out [WebElements](http://www.webelements.com/webelements/index.html) 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. ---
**Author:** ![Spiny\_Norman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@Spiny\_Norman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiny_Norman)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2001, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-elements/65043/4 "2001-05-11T12:49:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Smeghead \* > **Once you get up to atoms this size, they’re highly unstable.** 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 ---
**Author:** ![mongrel\_8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@mongrel\_8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mongrel_8)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2001, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-elements/65043/5 "2001-05-11T14:21:44Z")
**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](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=44485) ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2001, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-elements/65043/6 "2001-05-12T02:18:55Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Renhcub](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Renhcub](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Renhcub)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2001, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-elements/65043/7 "2001-05-12T17:45:58Z")
That element 114 is terrible. Pushing the other elements around, always ready to explode. Tsk. Tsk. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2001, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-elements/65043/8 "2001-05-12T21:20:44Z")
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.