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Article: New elements made: a scientist picks a square on the giant, illuminated periodic table at the Lawrence Hall of Science at the University of California (Berkeley).(Physical)(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- Current Science, a Weekly Reader publication
- Article date:
- April 16, 2004
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 Weekly Reader Corp. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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DUBNA, Russia -- The periodic table might soon have two more squares. In February, a team of Russian and U.S. scientists reported that they had created two new elements. The two elements have the atomic numbers 113 and 115. An element's atomic number is the number of protons in the nucleus of each atom of the element.
The first 92 elements in the periodic table--hydrogen (1) to uranium (92)--exist in nature. The elements above 92, called heavy elements, have all been created in laboratories. Heavy elements are highly unstable and break up within a split second of being made.
The two newbies were created in a Russian cyclotron, a device that increases the ...