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Asked by anon-213629 to Robert, Imad, Hannah, Fern, Christian, carolwallace on 9 Jun 2019.
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Robert Ives answered on 9 Jun 2019:
Ooh! That’s a good question. I’m not a physicist, but as a scientist, I like to think that there is always more to discover. Theoretically, there could be a huge number of undiscovered elements. Many of these might be so unstable that they only exist for tiny amounts of time (less than a microsecond) and our current technology is unable to detect them. The Universe is a big place and might there be elements that do not conform to the basic layout of energy levels? Perhaps we haven’t even discovered the most common element in the Universe! We think hydrogen is the most common element because it is the simplest, but do we REALLY know this?
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Carol Wallace answered on 10 Jun 2019:
Oh, now this is a difficult one.
Elements – that’s one for the physicists, I think that with the increase in our knowledge we are realising that there is yet more to discover, so that’s one for you to ponder during your lifetimes.
Compounds – the pharmaceutical industry is always developing new compounds, looking for therapeutical uses. The chemists are exploring what they can manufacture. and in nature we are forever discovering new proteins, compounds and other complex structures.
Is it limitless? I really don’t know but we’re nowhere near there yet. -
Fern Johnson answered on 10 Jun 2019: last edited 10 Jun 2019 9:21 am
I think stability is a big issue. I’m not a chemist or a physicist but as I understand it big elements like uranium are unstable, because they have so many protons in their nucleus there’s really big forces pulling electrons from their orbitals into the nucleus. It’s why elements like uranium are radioactive and decay, and why even heavier mad-made elements only last for a few minutes or seconds, just long enough to observe that they existed
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Christian Gude answered on 10 Jun 2019:
Interesting question! We have pretty much reached the limit in what elements we can make because the nuclei get too large and decay too quickly. The forces holding them together are not strong enough anymore if they get too large.
However! There is a cool concept about some elements being more stable than others if their number of protons or neutrons happens to be what they call “magical” numbers. A postulated “island of stability” of superheavy element isotopes might exist, but chances are their stability is only going to be relative, so they will stay decay within seconds.
In terms of chemical compounds, or molecules, there’s not really much of a limit, because of the myriad of combinations you can have. Some molecules will be unstable and some will be too large to ever be sensibly made chemically. At the moment we know of tens of millions, so there is room for more. And if you consider DNA as a molecule, there is almost infinite possibilities…
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Imad Ouachan answered on 10 Jun 2019:
As far as we know the big issue is stability. As you get bigger and bigger the nuclear forces can’t keep it all together and the element will begin to decay and break down into smaller stable elements.
Currently scientists are making these heavier elements, usually with weird names such as Ununctium and Ununseptium. This done by firing different elements at each other for weeks at a time at super high speeds hoping that they fuse together making these heavier elements. This requires a lot of energy and equipment making it super expensive. The elements they do form are really unstable and break up in less than 0.001 seconds.
Perhaps all we need is more energy… these heavy elements are thought to be found in supernovas so could we harness the energy of our sun to make new elements….?
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