Fine Structure

The NY Times is reporting that a Russian team has created the first few atoms (six, to be exact) of element 117, previously unseen to scientists. Heavier elements are created in the lab by a process similar to the LHC: linear or circular accelerators push elements to higher and higher speeds and then slam them together in an effort to combine their energies in a way that creates new and different elements. Though LHC is focused on accelerating very small things like protons, these accelerators use larger items, such as entire atoms of calcium (atomic number 20) and berkelium (atomic number 97).

These heavier elements could potentially be produced naturally, but they're so short lived and require such high energies that a detector would have to be at just the right time and place - and that place would likely be very close to a recent supernova. It's easier (though not incredibly easy) to just create them at home.

As scientists create heavier and heavier elements the amount of time that these elements stick around before decaying into lighter elements is greatly shortened. For example, half a sample of Bohrium (107) sicks around for 61 seconds (its half-life), but the slightly heavier cousin Ununhexium (116) would have half its sample left after only 61 milliseconds - 1000 times shorter!

These heavier elements have more mass because they contain more protons and neutrons in their center. Similarly to how electrons form "shells", theories exist for how the interior of elements "stack" as more and more protons and neutrons are added to form heavier elements. If certain theories are correct, there are possible "islands of stability" that exist just out of reach of the heaviest elements we currently create. Near these islands, very heavy elements would exist for long periods of time without decay. And, of course, more time around means that we can spend more time studying them for their potentially fascinating features.

No one really seems to know what we might find if these heavy elements stick around for a long time. Within reason, these elements could do strange things that the elements we're used to can't do. What those things are, however, is still on the fence.