Scientists have been searching Earth’s surface for superheavy elements too difficult to make in the lab, but now, many are looking to the skies instead.
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Articles on Superheavy elements
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The world is made of tiny building blocks called ‘elements’. Scientists have worked out how fast some elements change into other elements. That gives us a very big clue about how old the Earth is.
The periodic table is one of the classic images of science that is found in labs as well as on t-shirts, mugs, even set to music. But what exactly is the periodic table?
Our civilisation is built on chemistry, and the science has a bright future, with the launch of a new Decadal Plan that will steer the science into the future.
New elements found in the reactions of nuclear tests during World War II sparked the hunt for additions to the periodic table.
They might only last for a fraction of a second but four new elements have finally won their place in the periodic table. The hunt is now on to find even more.
Our panel of experts speculate on which of science’s biggest questions could be answered in the coming months.
The hunt for long-lived superheavy elements has taken another leap forward now we’ve confirmed the existence of Element 117, also known as ununseptium. It was first seen briefly by a team of US and Russian…
Top contributors
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Director, Heavy Ion Accelerator Facility, Australian National University
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Senior Lecturer in Chemistry, University of Birmingham
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Team Leader, CSIRO
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Professor of Geology, University of Adelaide
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Principal Lecturer in Wildlife Conservation, Nottingham Trent University
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Royal Society University Research Fellow and Lecturer in Particle Physics, UCL
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ARC Laureate Professor in Chemistry, The University of Melbourne
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Professor, The University of Queensland
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Professor of Physics, University of Arizona
