The Question:
This element is the second heaviest known to man. The element berkelium is
critical for understanding this element. A location - Vanderbuilt
University. Which element is being described?
The Answer:
The element is Tennessine (Ts)! Element 117 is a synthesized element so
very little is know about it. However the story of its discover is
neat [Bardi,
J. S. (2010). "An Atom at the End of the Material World". Inside Science.
Retrieved 2015-01-03]:
Plans to synthesize element 117 were suspended in favor of the confirmation
of element 118, which had been produced earlier in 2002 by bombarding a
californium target with calcium. The required berkelium-249 is a by-product
in californium-252 production, and obtaining the required amount of
berkelium was an even more difficult task than obtaining that of
californium, as well as costly: it would cost around 3.5 million dollars,
and the parties agreed to wait for a commercial order of californium
production, from which berkelium could be extracted
In November 2008, the U.S. Department of Energy, which had oversight over
the reactor in Oak Ridge, allowed the scientific use of the extracted
berkelium.The production lasted 250 days and ended in late December 2008,
resulting in 22 milligrams of berkelium, enough to perform the experiment.
In January 2009, the berkelium was removed from ORNL’s High Flux Isotope
Reactor; it was subsequently cooled for 90 days and then processed at
ORNL’s Radiochemical Engineering and Development Center to separate and
purify the berkelium material, which took another 90 days. Its half-life is
only 330 days: after that time, half the berkelium produced would have
decayed. Because of this, the berkelium target had to be quickly
transported to Russia; for the experiment to be viable, it had to be
completed within six months of its departure from the United States. The
target was packed into five lead containers to be flown from New York to
Moscow.
Russian customs officials twice refused to let the target enter the country
because of missing or incomplete paperwork. Over the span of a few days,
the target traveled over the Atlantic Ocean five times. On its arrival in
Russia in June 2009, the berkelium was transferred to Research Institute of
Atomic Reactors (RIAR) in Dimitrovgrad, Ulyanovsk Oblast, where it was
deposited as a 300-nanometer-thin layer on a titanium film. In July 2009,
it was then transported to Dubna, where it was installed in the particle
accelerator at JINR. The calcium-48 beam was generated by chemically
extracting the small quantities of calcium-48 present in naturally
occurring calcium, enriching it 500 times. This work was done in the closed
town of Lesnoy, Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia.
The experiment began late July 2009. In January 2010, scientists at the
Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions announced internally that they had
detected the decay of a new element with atomic number 117 via two decay
chains: one of an odd-odd isotope undergoing 6 alpha decays before
spontaneous fission, and one of an odd-even isotope undergoing 3 alpha
decays before fission.
The winner of the quiz is Drew Meyer, Benchmark and he will get the
services of Clumpy and Kloumpios for the week.
So far Clumpy and Kloumpios have done the following:
Past Quiz winners/tasks:
Week 1 Ravinder Ajmani, Western Digital
Week 1 Ron Feyereisen, SigmaTron Intl.
Week 2 Louis Hart, Compunetics
Week 3 Mark Kostinovsky, Schlumberger Ltd.
Week 3 John Burke
Week 4 Drew Meyer, Benchmark Electronics
Week 5 No Winner - no correct responses!
Week 6 Bhanu Sood, NASA
Week 7 Keith Calhoun, Sopark Corp
Week 7 Ian Fox, Rolls Royce
Week 8 Leland Woodall
Week 8 David Bealer, SMT
Week 9 Tom Carroll, Boeing
Week 10 Louis Hart, Compunetics
Week 11 Tom Carroll, Boeing
Week 11 Scott Decker, UTAS
Week 12 Matthias Mansfeld, Mansfeld Elektronik PCB Design and Assembly
Week 13 No Quiz,
Week 14 Matthias Mansfeld, Mansfeld Elektronik PCB Design and Assembly
Week 15 Bhanu Sood, NASA
Week 16 John Maxwell
Week 17 Leland Woodall
Week 18 Leland Woodall
Week 19 Tom Carroll, Boeing
Week 20 Robert Kondner
Week 21 Tom Brendlinger, ClearMotion Inc.
Week 22 Carl Van Wormer, Cipher Engineering LCC
Week 23 Juliano Ribeiro, DATACOM
Week 24 Gerry Gagnon, FLIR Commercial Systems
Week 25 Graham Collins, Sunsel Systems
Week 26 Joyce Koo, IPC International
Week 26 Todd MacFadden, Bose
Week 27 Bhanu Sood, NASA
Week 28 Leland Woodall
Week 29 Mordechai Kirshenbaum
Week 30 Leland Woodall
Week 31 Leland Woodall
Week 32 Steve Gregory
Week 33 Leland Woodall
Week 34 Jerry Dengler, Pergamon Corp
Week 35 Frank Kimmey, VeriFone Inc
Week 36 Graham Collins, Sunsel Systems
Week 37 Richard "Dean" Stadem
Week 38 Leland Woodall
Week 38 Tom Carroll
Week 39 Matthias Mansfeld, Mansfeld Elektronik PCB Design and Assembly
Week 40 Leland Woodall
Week 41 Tom Carroll
Week 42 Matthias Mansfeld, Mansfeld Elektronik PCB Design and Assembly
Week 43 Joyce Koo
Week 44 Russell Kido, Practical Components
Week 45 Leland Woodall
Week 45 Frank Kimmey, VeriFone Inc
Week 46 Ian Fox, Rolls-Royce Control Systems
Week 47 Fred Cox, Bluering Stencils
Week 48 Tom Carroll, Boeing
Week 49 Todd MacFadden, Bose
Week 49 Leland Woodall
Week 50 Russell Kido, Practical Components
Week 51 Ravinder Ajmani, Western Digital
Week 52 Leland Woodall
Week 53 Scott Decker, UTAS
Week 54 Leland Woodall
Week 55 Tom Carroll, Boeing
- Clumpy and Kloumpios will arrive just in time to help with some spring
cleaning outside. Can't wait for this winter to be gone. You are probably
dealing with Winter Storm Xanto right now, good luck with that. I hope it
misses New York City as it moves east. Please have them bring the tiller
attachment for their John Deere so they can easily turn the soil in the
front flower bed. After the boys get done with the yard work they can relax
on the deck with some nice IPA and go fishing in the canal out back. I know
they enjoyed that last time they visited.
Week 56 Mordechai Kirshenbaum
- I picked the boys from Ben Gurion Airport after a 24 hr delay. I shall
let them to overcome the Jet Lag, but tomorrow they are going to work hard
at my labs. I hope they will enjoy their stay
Week 57 Steve Herring, Pennatronics Corp
- We have two new SPI's being installed and validated next week, so I'm
sure we can use the help. I hope they are brushed up on statistics and
Minitab, as a whole lot of number crunching will be going on!
Week 58 Leland Woodall
- The boys will be doing a round of golf tomorrow morning, yard work
tomorrow afternoon, and we'll all be eating grilled burgers tomorrow evening
while watching the Kansas race. I want them to relax a bit before they
continue helping me perform more TS to IATF document conversion next week.
Week 59 Drew Meyer, Benchmark
- assisted with ????
I hope everyone has a awesome week!
Dave Hillman
Rockwell Collins
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