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Synthetic element

From CreationWiki, the encyclopedia of creation science

A synthetic element is any chemical element that is not found in nature and exists only in laboratories. Synthetic elements come from controlled fusion of lighter atoms, using any of various instruments (linac, cyclotron, etc.) to accelerate atoms and cause them to collide with one another. The synthesis of new elements is done for two reasons:

1. To show that certain elements that are "missing" from the periodic table do in fact have the properties that the periodicity of all chemical elements would predict that they would have.

2. To produce new elements in order to study the type, quality, and quantity of particles that they might emit.

The list of synthetic elements includes technetium, promethium, plutonium, and every element having an atomic number higher than that of plutonium.

All synthetic elements, without exception, are radioactive. Most of them have very short half-lives.