Observations: Two New Superheavy Chemical Elements Formally Recognized: “The elements with atomic numbers of 114 and 116 have been recognized by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), which credited a Russia–U.S. collaboration with their discovery.”

Now, what to name them??

Hmm… squirrelium and griffinium sound good to me.

Heaviest Particle of Antimatter Found | Big Bang & Antihelium | LiveScience: “At the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) – a particle accelerator at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory — the nuclei of gold atoms collide, head-on, at near the speed of light. This simulates the conditions just after the Big Bang, a time when scientists think the universe was swirling with equal amounts of antimatter and regular matter.

Out of almost 1 billion atomic smashups, researchers detected 18 examples of the unique signature of the antihelium-4 nucleus. These 18 signatures were among data for half a trillion charged particles emitted by nearly a billion collisions.”

Bring on the antilithium!

Starless planets may be habitable after all – space – 20 February 2011 – New Scientist: “Gravitational tussles with other planets or passing stars can eject planets from their solar systems. But even in the cold of space, these wayward worlds could stay warm, thanks to the decay of radioactive elements in their rocky cores.”

The universe is so vast and so amazing. Thankfully, we get to study it together from our warm and relatively radioactive-free part of the planet Earth.

Hopefully so, because this is pretty cool…

What does a proton taste like?: ” Drawing attention to the fact that the ability to detect ‘sour’ tastes is one of the least well-understood gustatory talents. But progress has recently been made, and the current view is that the detection of sour tastes is linked to the presence of hydrogen ions in the food. Since a normal hydrogen atom is composed of one proton and one electron, a hydrogen ion (missing its electron) can simply be thought-of as a free proton. Thus the sour-specific cells of mammalian tongues are, in effect, proton detectors.”

Had never thought of that. Completely makes sense, though!

YouTube – World’s Smallest Periodic Table

If you, like me, have always been curious why gold has always been so valuable compared to other elements, head over and listen to this report from NPR…

Gold and the Periodic Table of the Elements : Planet Money from NPR: “So we’re down from 118 elements to 30, and we’ve come up with a list of three key requirements [for money]:

- Not a gas.
- Doesn’t corrode or burst into flames
- Doesn’t kill you.“

Can’t argue there, I guess.

Sounds like a good exam question

Yay Periodic Table!

BBC News – Large Hadron Collider (LHC) generates a ‘mini-Big Bang’: “The Large Hadron Collider has successfully created a ‘mini-Big Bang’ by smashing together lead ions instead of protons. “

We NEED you all to become scientists to help us process this data. Help?

We all know that diamonds are one of the hardest substances on earth. We also know that pencil “lead” really isn’t lead at all, but a form of carbon called graphite.

So, this is pretty amazing…

Secret of ultra-hard graphite unlocked – tech – 06 November 2010 – New Scientist: “In 2003, an experiment suggested that graphite, which is normally soft, could become ultra-hard when compressed. Graphite squeezed between two diamond jaws at pressures of 170,000 atmospheres managed to produce a crack in the diamond. The atomic structure of the material remained elusive, however.”

We’ll study carbon chemistry near Thanksgiving… it’s a fascinating area of study!

Fusion is a fascinating process that occurs all the time. The problem is that stars are very good at producing fusion reactions. Here on earth, however, we aren’t as good at making these reactions.

Why would we want to create fusion reactions? Simple: limitless (and virtually free) energy.

The Promise of Fusion: Energy Miracle or Mirage? by Alex Salkever: Yale Environment 360: “The NIF is home to the latest attempt to fuse two nuclei into one in a manner that does not result in a thermonuclear explosion. Inside this massive building, the world’s largest and highest-energy laser focuses the intense energy of 192 separate laser beams into an even more intense single beam aimed at a BB-sized target filled with hydrogen fuel, with the goal of creating a tiny star by replicating the process that powers the sun and similar celestial bodies.”

Yet again, the fusion problem is another reason we need you all to become scientists!

Chemical bond – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: “A chemical bond is an attraction between atoms or molecules that allows the formation of chemical compounds, which contain two or more atoms.”

Study and enjoy the universe!