Message posted by Andreas Parsch on February 02, 2004 at 12:22:38 PST:
Just for the record (and at the risk of sounding nerdy) ... The fact that all isotopes of Element 115 decay rather quickly was perfectly well known to nuclear physicists for many years. The methods for calculating the stability of a given nuclide are relatively good by now (thanks to fast computers), and there are 2000+ experimentally known isotopes to test the numeric models. So even if the _exact_ half life of Element 115's isotopes is _not_ known before some atoms are actually observed, the general order of magnitude is not in dispute. That's one of _many_ reasons the Lazar story sounds outright ridiculous to _real_ physicists. As for the possibility of really stable (i.e. no decay at all) superheavy elements, most physicists would probably say that's rather unlikely. The discoveries of Elements 110 and up in the last decades have shown that the stabilizing effect of "magic" numbers of protons and neutrons is not as big as originally estimated. The half-lifes of 114 are much higher than they would be without this effect, but still _far_ from true stability. Err ... sorry for the dull lesson ;-)! Andreas
In Reply to: Re: Element 115 Created posted by Dave Bethke on February 02, 2004 at 9:46:48 PST:
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