November 9 – Darmstadtium Discovery Day!

nPostednon November 9, 2016

Inlike my elements stable! n

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nLikenany other living thing, I do better when the carbon and oxygen aroundnme isn’t breaking down into other elements and leaking radiation innthe process.

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nAlmostnall of the oxygen and carbon on Earth are stable isotopes, but Oxygenn15 and Carbon 14 and other radioactive isotopes do exist in tracenamounts. Oxygen 15 breaks down very quickly – after just a bit morenthan 2 minutes, half of the 15-O atoms will convert themselves tonfluorine or nitrogen. Carbon 14 is more weakly radioactive; it takesnabout 5,730 years for half of these atoms to convert themselves tonstable Nitrogen 14 atoms.

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nTodaynwe celebrate an element that is much more of a “flash in the pan,”neven, than Oxygen 15: darmstadtium. n

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nOnnthis date in 1994, a research group in Germany created the firstnknown darmstadtium in the Institute for Heavy Ion Research. Thatninstitute is located in Darmstadt – hence the name!

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Andnthe longest-existing darmstadtium isotope doesn’t last for thousandsnof years or even a couple of minutes – its half life is only 9 ton11 seconds! That means that, just 10 (or so) seconds after beingncreated, about half of the darmstadtium atoms have decayed intonlighter elements. n

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nMostnisotopes of darmstadtium break down in mere milliseconds.

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nDarmstadtiumnhas the symbol Ds and the atomic number 110. It always has 110nprotons, and various isotopes have from 150 to 170 neutrons (the morenneutrons, the more stable the darmstadtium atom, for the most part).

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