364 | The History and Use of Our Earth’s Chemical Elements History

364 | The History and Use of Our Earth’s Chemical Elements History

Element 118 has an interesting and fascinating history. In June 1999 the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) announced that its team working with the 88-inch cyclotron and related detection equipment had produced a few atoms of the heavy element Z-118. The team claimed it contained 118 protons and 175 neutrons in its nucleus for a total of 293 atomic mass units (amu) plus one neutron. One of its several decay products was ele- ment Z-116. Later LBNL’s director announced that an internal investigation had resulted in the discipline for scientific misconduct of a member of the team working on element 118. Both internal and external investigating committees’ examinations found that Victor Ninov,

a member of the experimental team and major author of the first publication related to the discovery of element 118, “cooked” the data of the experiment. Nuclear research labs in Japan, German, and France could not replicate the experiment in order to confirm the artificial production of element 118. Even other scientists at Berkeley could not verify the results of Ninov’s data. Ninov had developed his own computer program to track three decay sequences of the few atoms of element 118 through element 116 to the end of the chains as element 106. Other Berkeley scientists and the investigating committees could not locate his original data that claimed several decay chains for element 118. One visiting scientist from Poland sug-

gested that element 118 could be fabricated by using a beam of 36 Krypton-86 ions to bombard

82 Lead-208. Using the Berkeley 88-inch cyclotron, a beam of ions of krypton-86 was aimed at thin sheets of lead-208. The proposed reaction follows:

36 Kr-86 > bombarded > 82 Pb-208 → 118 Uuo-293 + one neutron. The LBNL’s sensitive gas-filled separator and silicon detector plate would detect any new

particles produced by this bombardment, including element 118. These instruments would identify any alpha particles in a decay chain. Ninov’s team reported that it had found three atoms of element 118 over a ten-day period of running the experiment. This resulted in three different alpha-decay sequences as reported as evidence of the discovery by Ninov. Also, the sequence of decay events for elements 118 and 116, if they really occurred, would be consis- tent with the theory for the “island of stability.” The saga continues; several of Ninov’s col- leagues used their own computers and programs but could not verify the original data claimed, but never produced, by Ninov. The conclusion is that the original data was fabricated. Ninov is no longer employed at the LBNL, and the published papers of the discovery of 118 were retracted.

One conclusion that can be drawn from this is that even the best of scientific labs and investigators can be seduced into scientific misconduct. Fortunately, such misconduct is rare in the scientific community. Another conclusion is that because the decay chain of element 118 produced the following new elements—116, as it was the result of the decay process of the nonexistent element 118, 114, 112, 110, 108, and 106—it throws suspicion on the exis- tence of element 116. Still, many of the elements identified by the suspect decay chain have also been independently produced synthetically.

Common฀Uses None, except in theoretical research in nuclear physics.

365 Examples฀of฀Compounds

Guide to the Elements |

None. Hazards None, because it does not yet exist.