Copernicium Confirmed As Element 112 183
Several sources are reporting that the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry has confirmed Copernicium as element 112 on the periodic table of elements with the symbol Cn. "The naming of the new element will be the culmination of a long, fraught journey involving fierce competition, dashed hopes, clever detective work and even a brush with scientific misconduct. With a nucleus containing 112 protons — 20 more than uranium, the heaviest of the naturally occurring elements — it will be the weightiest atom whose existence has been confirmed so far."
Re:The naming was the easy part! (Score:3, Informative)
Re:On Earth (Score:5, Informative)
Re:But But but (Score:5, Informative)
Avatar wasn't the first use of that, they actually reused a name that had been used in literature for decades...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unobtainium [wikipedia.org]
Re:natural? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Take that china (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Later that night... (Score:4, Informative)
Interestingly enough, uranium isn't the heaviest naturally occurring element. It occurs in two ways. One is extremely small amounts [wikipedia.org] of natural Pu-244 The other is muromontite [theodoregray.com], which is a beryllium and sometimes uranium-containing form of allanite, making it a natural breeder reactor.
Uranium Not The Heaviest Natural Element On Earth (Score:4, Informative)
Since plutonium, element 93, is found in uranium ores (being bred there by neutron capture) and Pu-244 (half-life 80.8 million years) has also survived in detectable quantities from the formation of the Earth, uranium is not the heaviest natural element on Earth.
Re:On Earth (Score:5, Informative)
Hey jackass, how many people do we have trying to identify new elements anywhere else besides Earth?
Actually, Helium was discovered not on Earth, but the Sun.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium [wikipedia.org]
Re:The naming was the easy part! (Score:3, Informative)
Re:What about... (Score:3, Informative)
The element of surprise?
It has an atomic weight of: 0.o
Re:Take that china (Score:2, Informative)
Indeed he was (Score:3, Informative)
So, to nitpick, since transuranics use the actual form of scientist's names, it should really be Kupfernigkium, Kf.
(Otherwise, Einsteinium would have to be Unopetrium.)
Re:Who is the 'heavy' here ? (Score:3, Informative)
Heaviest -> most massive, Densest -> most dense. No better wording needed. Especially given that it specifies "elements" and not "single element materials"
You did remember to specify that your densities were at STP didn't you?