Element 118 (in Phys Rev C)

October 19, 2006 on 1:56 pm | In Science News & Hot Topics |

Phys. Rev. C 74, 044602 (2006)
Synthesis of the isotopes of elements 118 and 116 in the ²⁴⁹Cf and ²⁴⁵Cm+⁴⁸Ca fusion reactions
–coauthored by Joint Institute for Nuclear Research and UC’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

From the New York Times, Element 118, Heaviest Ever, Reported for 1,000th of a Second:

The results were met with praise but also caution from other scientists in the field, particularly given the fraught history of element 118. Another California lab, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, announced that it discovered the element in 1999 but retracted the claim two years later after an investigation found that one of its researchers, Dr. Victor Ninov, had fabricated data. Dr. Ninov was later fired.

Dr. Ken Moody, the lead American researcher on the work, said everything had been done to guard against fabrication, with independent analyses being carried out in Russia and the United States. And the group’s paper on the putative find has been accepted at a prestigious journal, Physical Review C, after other scientists reviewed the work, said Dr. Jonathan Lenaghan, an editor at the journal.

But it was less the fear of fraud than ordinary scientific caution that caused some scientists to reserve judgment on the discovery. The Russian lab and its collaborators have now announced the discovery of five elements — 113, 114, 115, 116 and now 118 — none of which have been confirmed by other scientists.

“One has to be extremely careful with those enthusiastic announcements,” said Dr. Witold Nazarewicz, a nuclear theorist at the University of Tennessee and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

“This is not because one is doing something wrong,” Dr. Nazarewicz said. “It’s because these are very difficult measurements. They are playing on the edges of statistics.”

Other related articles:

• Elements 116 and 118 Are Discovered, from Physics News Update

• Livermore scientists team with Russia to discover element 118, from LLNL Public Affairs
• Scientists discover new element — No. 118, San Jose MercuryNews