Japanese Team Claims Discovery of Elusive Element 113, and May Get to Name It
Decay Chain of Element 113 Superheavy element 113 decays to the following daughter isotopes: Roentgenium-274; Meitnerium-270; Bohrium-266; Dubnium-262; Lawrencium-258; and Mendelevium-254. RIKENThe claim needs to be verified by chemical authorities, but the team says it's the strongest evidence yet for the highly unstable element. Japanese researchers claim they've seen conclusive evidence of the long-sought element 113, a super-heavy, super-unstable element near the bottom of the periodic table. It's not yet verified by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, which regulates the table and the names of the elements - but if the IUPAC grants its blessing, the researchers could be the first team from Asia to name one of nature's fundamental atoms. Super-heavy elements do not occur in nature and have to be discovered in the lab, using particle accelerators, nuclear reactors, ion separators and other complex equipment. Scientists led by Kosuke Morita at the RIKEN Nishina Center...