• Question: Why are we making super heavy elements such as ones 113 and above?

    Asked by Dan to Deborah, Euan, Maheen, Rob on 22 Jun 2016. This question was also asked by Matt.
    • Photo: Deborah Prunty

      Deborah Prunty answered on 22 Jun 2016:

      We look for them, and try to create them, to prove that our theories about the universe, matter, and atoms, are true. We knew that super heavy elements such as 113 should exist if atoms worked the way we thought they do. Now we’ve found them, and have a better understanding of how they are made and how the decay, we can apply that knowledge to other things – like looking at how matter and energy interact and convert between each other, or how space and time meet and interact with each other.

    • Photo: Euan Allen

      Euan Allen answered on 22 Jun 2016:

      Hi Dan, great question.

      As well as everything Deborah said, it’s also useful from a technology perspective. We want to make these elements to study their properties. We could find that when we make these elements that they have a specific property that makes them useful for some application. Producing these elements is also very difficult and requires scientists to perfect certain processes. Just working hard on perfecting these process may be of some use for some other application, even if the element we end up making is useless!

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