Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory Creates 2 New Elements

Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory said Monday they have created two new elements, Nos. 116 and 118, bringing to three the number created this year. Russian scientists said in January that they had created element No. 114. All three artificial elements are too short-lived to exist in nature.

The Berkeley team created 118 by directing a beam of high-energy ions of krypton-86 at a target of lead-208. Within a millisecond after its creation, 118 emits an alpha particle, becoming element 116. That element, in turn, emits another alpha particle to become 114. The process continues through at least element 106. Even though the whole process takes less than a second, the new elements are still much more stable than elements with atomic numbers in the range of 100 to 110.

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Compiled by Times medical writer Thomas H. Maugh II