Element 118 reported (again)

By Simon Cotton2007-01-01T00:00:00

Source: Alejo Miranda/Shutterstock

In 1999, scientists at the American Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory reported the synthesis of element 118...

In 1999, scientists at the American Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory reported the synthesis of element 118 by bombarding ²⁰⁸₈₂Pb with a beam of ⁸⁶₃₆Kr nuclei. These claims were retracted in 2001 - it seems that one member of the team fabricated the results.

Now collaboration between Russian and American scientists may have delivered the goods. Using a particle accelerator at the Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions at Dubna in Russia, physicists from the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Russia and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the US bombarded a target of ²⁴⁹₉₈Cf with an intense beam of atoms of the neutron rich ⁴⁸₂₀Ca isotope.

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