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Comment by PieSquared | Hacker News Reader

I am left to wonder though: what is the possible use of this?

I realize it's basic research (and as such am all for it), but it would be interesting to know whether any practical uses are even planned or theorised.

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If we could reach the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_of_stability we might get some very interesting materials.

Thanks for the Island of Stability link, I had never heard that term before.

But given that the atoms of these elements need to be manufactured with a high energy cost, using them to manufacture pure materials would be prohibitively expensive. As in, physically prohibitive : we would need Kardashev level 1 energy to manufacture macroscopic amounts. I could see an use as dopants though : this would require minuscule amounts of these elements, but it would still be amazingly expensive.

You got downmodded (I think) because it's way way too early to worry about how much energy they take to make. Lets first make them - for all me know by the time we manage it, fusion reactors will be cheap.

But I bumped you back up since I don't think your comment deserves a zero.

Shouldn't 118 have been the pinnacle of the island of stability? It's a noble element...

The electron cloud is noble (i.e. all filled shells/layers).

But the nucleus has it's own shells, and those are the ones that need to be filled for it to be stable.

However not as much is known about the nucleus shells, how many in each level, etc. Read here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_shell_model

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