(word processor parameters LM=8, RM=75, TM=2, BM=2) Taken from KeelyNet BBS (214) 324-3501 Sponsored by Vangard Sciences PO BOX 1031 Mesquite, TX 75150 There are ABSOLUTELY NO RESTRICTIONS on duplicating, publishing or distributing the files on KeelyNet except where noted! October 4, 1993 ELEM02.ASC -------------------------------------------------------------------- This file shared with KeelyNet courtesy of Rick Lawler. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 09-07-93 23:34 From: Micheal Mace To: all Given the heated debate about Bob Lazar and his claims about the existence of element 115, I found a very interesting article in the paper. Just when we think we know everything about physics, those darn scientists keep running experiments that upset our "knowledge." As Ming the Merciless, in Flash Gordon, says: "Puny Earthlings!" I have included the article in its entirety. Any and all typos are mine, since I typed this in by hand. And by the way, the Russian scientist's name _IS_ LAZARev - I'm not playing a funny here. -------------------------------------------------------------------- From the: San Francisco Chronicle - Monday, September 6, 1993 - Pg A2 SCIENTISTS MAKE ELEMENTAL DISCOVERY U.S.-Russian team sheds new light on theories of atomic stability by Charles Petit - Chronicle Science Editor Russian and American scientists are reporting that, using a powerful cyclotron in a lab north of Moscow, they may have found a way to break a scientific log jam blocking efforts to make elements beyond the 109 now known. The new work suggests that extremely heavy elements, virtually all of them man-made and never seen in nature, can be much more stable than believed, making it easier to extend the list of elements. The scientists did not make a new element but say they did make a handful of atoms of element 106 with an unprecedented number of the subatomic particles called neutrons in their centers. The atoms lasted as long as 30 seconds or even longer before spontaneously disintegrating in radioactive decay. Element 106, which has no formal name, was first reported nearly 20 years ago by a team at the University of California's Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, but the Berkeley version had a half life of less than a second and also had few neutrons in its core. Page 1 "The goal was to be at the limits of nuclear physics, where theory is stretched to the extreme of what we can understand," said Ronald Lougheed, a leader of the effort and chemist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. "What our results indicate is that things are much more stable out there than the usual theories would have predicted." An element's atomic number refers to the number of electrically charged protons in its nucleus. The nucleus also contains a similar or larger number of neutrons, which have about the same mass as protons but no electric charge. Since discovery of 106, German scientists have managed after great effort to create in the laboratory elements 107, 108, and 109, but each disintegrates in fractions of a second. Worry had grown that elements heavier than 109 might be impossible to make. If so, it would bring to an end an intellectual journey to discover all chemical elements permitted by the laws of nature. It is a quest begun by ancient civilizations such as the Greeks - who believed all things are combinations of earth, air, fire, and water. Modern science recognizes 92 natural elements, from hydrogen at number 1 through uranium at 92. Since the 1940s, 17 more elements have been created, including plutonium, neptunium, lawrencium, and einsteinium that are even heavier. Lougheed spoke during an interview at the laboratory that included two members of the Russian portion of the collaboration, Yuri Lazarev and Vladimir Utyonkov of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research at Dubna, some 90 miles north of Moscow. The results were first described to a small meeting in Finland in the spring and are being submitted to publication in the journal Physical Review C. Lazarev is also leading a symposium on them this week at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. Although preliminary, the work inspires intense excitement among the relative handful of scientists who still pursue the hunt for ever- heavier, more exotic elements. "Boy, I hope they are right. This gives a whole new twist to it (theories of atomic stability). I would get busy right now if I had a machine to work with," said Albert Ghiorso, a senior Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory physicist who has been a major figure in creation of man-made elements since the 1940s. There is no sure practical payoff to the research. Lazarev said, however, that the behavior of atomic nuclei under the extreme stress created by interaction of so many protons and neutrons will help scientists understand the nature of more common elements. Page 2 The scientists base their conclusions on only a small bit of data. They ran the cyclotron, a form of subatomic particle accelerator, for 16 straight days in April. Its intense beam of neon nuclei slammed into a target of curium. The hope was that among the trillions of collisions, a few neon and curium nuclei would merge into an isotope of element 106 with 160 neutrons that some scientists hypothesized might be unusually stable. The evidence of success came from measuring decay products, called alpha rays, released by atoms as they decay. Only four alpha rays of the computed energy were detected. Factoring in the efficiency of the Livermore-supplied detector, the scientists estimate they made about 150 neutron-rich atoms of element 106. "We were at the extremes of what is possible with both U.S. and Russian physics," Lazarev said. "These experiments are terribly hard." The U.S. Department of Energy recently ordered a shutdown of the only remaining accelerator in Berkeley, the super-Hiliac, which would have been able to confirm or extend the work. -------------------------------------------------------------------- If you have comments or other information relating to such topics as this paper covers, please upload to KeelyNet or send to the Vangard Sciences address as listed on the first page. Thank you for your consideration, interest and support. Jerry W. Decker.........Ron Barker...........Chuck Henderson Vangard Sciences/KeelyNet -------------------------------------------------------------------- If we can be of service, you may contact Jerry at (214) 324-8741 or Ron at (214) 242-9346 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Page 3