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Maddenation
Uut and Uup
Two new elements have reportedly been created or is it discovered!?! How awesome is that? The last time scientists made this claim they were proven wrong (due to fudging their results and making stuff up). This time it seems to be legit - elements 115 and 113 have been made. My question to you, gentle reader, is this… did the scientists CREATE or DISCOVER these two new elements? We’ve had this discussion in my science classes - the kids are pretty evenly split. What do you think? Check out this article in the New York Times (it was on the front page of the Sunday edition). Man is science cool!
David • News • 02/03/04 • 4 comments
Comments
Dad • 02/04/04 • 10:10 AM:Your question is similar to another question we have asked, was mathematics discovered or invented? I tend to favor the “discovered” side of both questions. Mathematics is out there in nature and underlying nature, and it’s amazing and unlimited relattionships are waiting to be discovered.
Regarding “new” elements, it’s hard to believe that in all the universe, Uut and Uup don’t exist somewhere else. And even if they don’t, I would argue that the scientists merely discovered a new way to fit together the basic building blocks of matter.
The neat thing about the elemantal “island of stability” talked about in the article is that these discoveries could lead to vastly new chemical properties that could revolutionize (for want of a better word) our future lives.
David • 02/04/04 • 11:40 AM:I like the “discovered” side of math, but not for new elements. I suppose you could argue that nothing is created (except during the big bang, or by God). I mean, nobody has EVER done anything but find a new way to fit stuff together - whether it’s old sounds to make new music (Mozart), old wood to make new violin (Stradivarius), old words and letters to make new story (Shakespeare). You get the point. So when these scientists use basic building blocks, I still think they are ‘creating’ new things. At least here on Earth. (I do wonder if elements beyond 92 exist naturally elsewhere in the universe, like Technetium, which no longer exists naturally on earth, but at one time did).
A wise man by the name of Glen Seaborg once said, in reference to ‘creating’ many other elements…
”It was exciting just to walk into the lab, full of anticipation that that day I might be the first human being ever to see some unimaginable new creation.”
”After all, you can’t discover something that doesn’t exist in nature,” he explained, ”any more than Michelangelo discovered his David inside a block of marble. None of these elements existed before we synthesized them.”
I tend to agree with the man. After all, he did get an element named after him while still alive. (The quotes are from another NYT article about the folly of element 118 - from July 23, 2003 - I can send a copy out electronically if anybody wants).
Yes, the ‘island of stability’ sounds way cool.
Dan • 02/04/04 • 12:49 PM:I’ll accept that math had been used in nature before humans knew it, but humans created notation to understand it. Now that’s way cool.
Dad, I think your Island of Serenity is better.
Dan • 02/05/04 • 12:32 AM:This might interest you.
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