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When I say something new I do not refer to something already made like H,O etc and when I mean something new I do not refer to a transformation like tritium to helium and gold. If so how ?(I mean is there a specific way to do that ?)

Pulsar
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Vlad Vlad
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2 Answers2

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Yes, so far, 20 synthetic elements have been created, with atomic numbers 99 (Einsteinium) to 118 (Ununoctium). All these elements are unstable, with half-lives ranging from a year to a few milliseconds.

You can find a list on wikipedia. These elements are produced in specialized nuclear reactors, by bombarding heavy elements like Uranium and Plutonium with neutrons or other elements.

Pulsar
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  • And then there is Antimatter –  Jul 19 '13 at 06:44
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    @kurtnelle Antimatter does exist. Just not for long. – Reactormonk Jul 19 '13 at 07:05
  • @Tass, we think that it exists and are currently searching for it in the universe. Other than that the antimatter we know we make. –  Jul 19 '13 at 07:06
  • What would happen if we would put an positron orbiting a proton ? – Vlad Vlad Jul 19 '13 at 08:19
  • @kurtnelle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antimatter#Natural_production – BlueRaja - Danny Pflughoeft Jul 19 '13 at 08:30
  • @VladVlad They would repel since they both have positive charge, so you wouldn't get a bound state. – Michael Jul 19 '13 at 08:30
  • @BlueRaja-DannyPflughoeft, I thought about that as well (the cosmic thing), but the asker is talking about elements, not subatoms –  Jul 19 '13 at 08:40
  • Ununseptium and above are temporary IUPAC names, which may later be replaced. – l0b0 Jul 19 '13 at 11:28
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    Correct answer of course, though you could argue that all synthetic elements are surely also produced in supernovae, and only decay too fast to be found anywhere else. So, not on earth, but in the universe. (Maybe the production rate is so small and the lifetime so short that, averaged over all time from the big bang till now, there exists less than one atom in the observable universe... then you could kind of say it the element does not occur naturally at all.) – leftaroundabout Jul 19 '13 at 11:32
  • @leftaroundabout Yes, good point. Some (or perhaps all) of these elements are likely to be produced in supernovae (and possibly neutron star mergers). – Pulsar Jul 19 '13 at 12:03
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    @VladVlad a positron around a proton isn't very interesting, but you can do some cool stuff like make a bound state of positrion+electon (positronium; it behaves almost like hydrogen until the two particles have a close interaction and annihilate), and positron + anti-proton (this one is harder to make just because both pieces tend to want to annihilate with just about anything nearby). – Kyle Oman Jul 19 '13 at 13:23
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some teams of physicists around the world are working on achieving that. And from time to time they do. The smash large nucleus onto each other and sometimes they fuse and result in an atomic nucleus belonging to a new element. Unfortunately, these nuclei are very short lived so you cannot create a stable bulk material with them. However, it is predicted that there is some "island of stability" in which a particular set of these new elements will become more or less stable. How stable, is anybody's guess. But scientists are close to having the tech to create these kind of elements, probably in the next few years.