The periodic table has a new entry, or will soon.

One of the hardest things in the world has to be creating new elements.  You need protons and neutrons, you need a cyclotron, and you need a lot of luck.  However, it looks like the mythical Element 115 may have taken another few wobbly steps towards reality.  Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have successfully created Element 115.  All it took was smashing together americium-243 with calcium-48 at very high speeds to create a new element that disappeared in seconds.

“This was a very successful experiment and is one of the most important in the field in recent years,” said professor of nuclear physics Dirk Rudolph.

Element 115 was first created in 2003 by scientists from the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna and American collaborators from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, who element 116 is named after.  The element quickly decayed into Element 113 (which is now official), but the creation of the element was enough to kick off a firestorm of research.  Now it looks like Element 115 may have done enough to earn its place on the periodic table.  Fingers crossed, science nerds; it’s all up to the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry now!

Tags: element 115, periodic table, periodic table of elements, element 115 may be added to periodic table, element 115 nicknamed ununpentium, element 115 discovered, new element on periodic table, lund university, sweden, new element, new element created, science, nuclear physicists, physics, dirk rudolph, International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry

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