Produced by: Tarun Mishra
Physicists are nearing the creation of the heaviest element known to humankind, following a scientific breakthrough at an American university.
Credit: Jenny Nuss/Berkeley Lab
Scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) successfully produced two atoms of livermorium (element 116) using a titanium particle beam, marking a significant step towards synthesizing element 120.
The discovery was announced at the Nuclear Structure 2024 conference, highlighting the Berkeley Lab's legacy of discovering 16 of the 118 known elements.
The experiment utilized the lab's heavy-ion accelerator, the 88-inch Cyclotron. The results, to be detailed in a paper on arXiv and submitted to Physical Review Letters, represent a key discovery in the pursuit of element 120.
Jacklyn Gates, a leading nuclear scientist at Berkeley Lab, emphasized that this reaction had never been demonstrated before, making it a crucial step in their ongoing efforts.
Gates described the creation of a new element as an extremely rare and exciting process, with the successful production of livermorium providing a promising path forward.
Reiner Kruecken, director of Berkeley Lab's Nuclear Science Division, noted that producing element 120 will likely take ten times longer than creating element 116, but the recent success makes the goal seem feasible.
The potential creation of element 120 would be an exceptional scientific achievement. Continued research and experimentation are expected to bring this goal within reach.
Credit: Marilyn Sargent/Berkeley Lab
The Berkeley Lab's ongoing research and advancements in nuclear science continue to push the boundaries of element discovery, contributing significantly to the field.
Credit: Marilyn Sargent/Berkeley Lab