Ununseptium Joins the Periodic Table

The periodic table of the elements just got a new member, unnamed at this point, its existence has been confirmed. Element 117, temporarily named “ununseptium,” was first reported in 2010 by a team of American and Russian scientists. Its confirmation by another group of scientists paves the way for inclusion in the standard periodic table of the elements.

The new element has 117 protons in its nucleus. It’s the latest of the man-made, super-heavy elements. It’s not found naturally in nature and, even when created in the laboratory, exists for only a millisecond.

Uranium, number 92 on the periodic table, is the heaviest element occurring naturally. Everything above that, is man-made.

It’s a pretty cool thing when you think about it. Those 92 elements are the building blocks of every single thing in the world. Everything from yogurt to stainless steel to the fingernail on your index finger and everything else, are all made of different combinations of those elements.

And here’s the most interesting part: 98% of all matter in the universe is comprised of just two elements - hydrogen and helium.