• Question: Do You Think That There Are Any Elements That We Haven't Discovered?

    Asked by anon-209960 to Verity, Sergio, Nick, Maria, David, Annette on 7 Mar 2019.
    • Photo: Nick Werren

      Nick Werren answered on 7 Mar 2019:

      We actually know the answer to this one very well: Yes, because we can build our own elements by sticking other ones together and throwing in more electrons, neutrons and protons (which are the ingredients of all atoms). All of the elements that we have left to create are really heavy, and heavy elements generally fall apart very quickly (this is called decay).

      Scientists are able to predict which elements will fall apart when we build them, and which ones won’t. There’s this peculiar region of the periodic table called “the Island of Stability”, we think elements that exist in this spot are REALLY heavy but also won’t fall apart/decay as quickly as all the other heavy element around them on the periodic table. We haven’t seen them yet, but hopefully we’ll make them in a lab soon and use them for cool stuff!!

    • Photo: Annette Raffan

      Annette Raffan answered on 7 Mar 2019:

      Absolutely – what we will be able to do with them is the question. Many are produced for split seconds in high energy situations and disappear as soon as they are made. Pretty cool, but probably not very useful. What would you call an element that you discovered?

    • Photo: Maria Walach

      Maria Walach answered on 8 Mar 2019:

      Hah, I think Nick & Annette have already answered this one really well!
      The only thing I would add is that it’s becoming more and more difficult to “make” or find new ones because most options have been tried and we are getting to the point where we need more energy to put them together, so there are some technological limitations to it..

    • Photo: David Whitworth

      David Whitworth answered on 8 Mar 2019:

      If we think about natural elements that we can find lying around on the ground I doubt it, but as everyone else says, yes there certainly are as we get to build them. Its like designer elements, throw things together in a supercollider and hope they stick together for long enough that we can measure and record them.

    • Photo: Sergio Adan Bermudez

      Sergio Adan Bermudez answered on 11 Mar 2019:

      As Nick said, there are elements that can only be predicted since they disintegrate too fast to be measured. If we improve the technology, maybe we will be able to see them!

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