Scientists confirm new element 115

As though it wasn't hard enough to memorize the names and atomic weights of 117 elements in the periodic table, scientists have now confirmed a new one.

Researchers from Lund University in Sweden created it by slamming atoms of one element, calcium, into atoms of another called americium.

The newly formed element vanished quickly in a flash of radiation that scientists could measure.

That flash, or "fingerprint," confirmed the existence of an element with 115 protons at its center. That would give it the atomic number of 115 on the periodic table, the list of all elements known to humanity.

The Swedes were the second group of scientists to create the element. A group of Russian scientists put together the same type of atom in 2004.

But the new experiment corroborated their work and confirmed 115's existence.

Still, this doesn't mean that you'll see element 115 on the next periodic table poster that gets published. The discovery still has to be approved by a committee composed of members of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry and the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics. This working group will determine whether the existing evidence is enough to justify adding the element to the table, or if more proof is required.


/CNN/