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 [log in to unmask]