DEEP, DARK PERIODIC TABLE

摘要

Elements occupying the far depths of the periodic table are so exotic and ephemeral it seems as if they are only barely there. In early 2010, when physicists announced the creation of the superheavy element ununseptium, even the handful of atoms that were made decayed into smaller ones in a fraction of a second. Theory predicts, however, that superheavy isotopes with lifetimes of minutes can be made. These might have novel properties. What's more, they would confirm the existence of the fabled "island of stability", an as-yet-hypothetical region of the periodic table where there should be stable superheavy elements.