Atomic Weight Changes
Significant changes to the standard atomic weights recommended .
The Commission on Isotopic Abundances and Atomic Weights (II.1) met in Pisa, Italy, prior the 44th IUPAC General Assembly held in Torino, Italy, 4-12 August 2007. Following its meeting, the Commission recommended significant changes to the standard atomic weights, Ar(E), of 5 chemical elements. The following changes are based on new determinations of isotopic abundances and reviews of previous isotopic abundances and atomic masses:

... lutetium, from 174.967(1) to174.9668(1); molybdenum, from 95.94(2) to 95.96(2); nickel, from 58.6934(2) to 58.6934(4), ytterbium, from 173.04(3) to 173.054(5); and zinc, from 65.409(4) to 65.38(2).
( The values are presented in a concise notation whereby the standard uncertainty is given in parenthesis next to the least significant digits to which it applies; for example, Ar(Zn) = 65.38(2) is the concise form of the expression Ar(Zn) = 65.38 0.02.)
In addition, the recommended value for the isotope amount ratio of 40Ar/36Ar, which may be of importance to geochronologists, has been changed from 296.03(53) to 298.56(31).
These changes will be published in a new Table of Standard Atomic Weights 2007, which should be submitted for publication by the end of 2007.
sources:
 . . . IUPAC (International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry)

Probing Element 112's Chemistry
The superheavy element behaves like mercury.
Researchers are normally hard-pressed to catch a fleeting glimpse of the so-called superheavy elements at the far edge of the periodic table. Now a team has gone a step further and studied the chemistry of short-lived element 112, which seems to bond with other elements in the same way as its mundane relatives zinc and mercury.

By firing a beam of 48Ca projectiles at a 242Pu target that was doped with Nd2O3, Robert Eichler of the Paul Scherrer Institute, Villigen, Switzerland, and coworkers from the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Dubna, Russia, and elsewhere produced two atoms of element 112, as well as various radioactive mercury and radon nuclei.
The products were then swept in a gas stream to a series of temperature-controlled gold-covered detectors. The group observed that similar to mercury (and in contrast to radon), element 112 is mildly volatile and bonds readily to gold. With only two atoms of the transactinide to look at, it remains unclear if the element can also take on mercury's signature liquid form.
sources:
 . . . Chemical & Engineering News
 . . . Scientific American.com
 . . . Economist.com

Supernova a chemical element generator
         By Peter N. Spotts
The star's 'monster' explosion, observed last September, is the biggest ever seen.
Dinosaurs were just beginning to thump across Earth when an enormous star exploded in a galaxy not too far away. Researchers now call the brightest, most powerful supernova they have ever seen.

It also appears to be far different from any they have seen before. The team of researchers argues that they may have witnessed for the first time a stellar endgame similar to blasts that obliterated many of the universe's first stars more than 12.6 billion years ago.
These first stars - hundreds of times more massive and millions of times brighter than the sun - are thought to have lived briefly and exploded violently. They exploded so violently that, instead of collapsing upon themselves and creating neutron stars or black holes like most supernovae, these stars were annihilated. In the process, they jetted their star dust into the cosmos and seeded the young universe with a range of chemical elements forged in their furnaces. It's these elements that became the building blocks for new generations of stars, planets, and eventually, organic life.  . . . source,   Christian Science Monitor

Electrons Caught In The Act Of Tunneling
We have to climb a mountain in order to conquer it. In quantum physics there is a different way: objects can reach the opposite side of a hill simply by tunneling through it, instead of laboriously climbing over it"
An international team of researchers working with Ferenc Krausz has now caught the electrons in the act of tunnelling through the binding potential of the atom nucleus under the influence of laser light.

"For the first time, our findings confirmed in real time observation the theoretical predictions of quantum mechanics," says Ferenc Krausz, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics and head of the team of scientists. Macroscopic objects are extremely unlikely to tunnel, which is why the phenomenon has never been observed in them. In contrast, there is a significant probability that particles from the microcosmos will tunnel through areas where, according to the rules of traditional physics, they are not even supposed to be. However, since it only lasts for an extremely short time, it has not yet been observed in real time. For the short moment when the wave peaks, the electron has the opportunity to escape from the atom. This is over an extremely short interval of a fraction of a femtosecond, a trillionth of a second.  . . .  more

"(Nanotechnology) is a very promising scientific and technical field, capable of fundamentally changing the model of the Russian economy ... from a fuel economy to an economy of the future," Ivanov said after a meeting Wednesday at the Kurchatov nuclear and scientific research institute, which was attended by President Vladimir Putin. Nanotechnology is an emerging field that works with microscopic particles the size of atoms. Ivanov, considered a possible candidate for Kremlin support to replace Putin after presidential election next March, said Putin had chosen him to head a council that will supervise spending on the nanotechnology effort under a program being developed by the government.oil and gas export earnings to seek to diversify an economy now heavily dependent on raw materials.
 . . . source,   The Associated Press

Cambridge celebrates "small wonders" 75th anniversary
          Cambridge Evening News
Three-quarters of a century ago, two young Cambridge physicists narrowly beat their American rivals to become the first scientists to split the atom.
John Cockcroft, 35, and Ernest Walton, 29, achieved their breakthrough experiment at the old Cavendish Laboratory in Free School Lane in Cambridge. But neither could have foreseen the staggering repercussions of their scientific success.

Seventy-five years later, the work of Cockcroft and Walton continues. Husband and wife team Prof Andy Parker, 50, and Dr Val Gibson, 43, of Huntingdon Road, work in high energy physics - small bits of atoms, to the rest of us.
J J Thompson discovered the electron in 1897. Then, in the 20s, Ernest Rutherford suggested it spun around a nucleus made up of protons and neutrons. Rutherford pushed his staff, Cockcroft and Walton, to confirm exactly what this hard centre was made of and this goal became known as splitting the atom.  . . .  more

In Jackson Hole "It's Elemental"
          By The Star Tribune staff
The Science Zone is going back to the basics. All the way back -- to the chemical elements.
The science museum offers two opportunities to become an element of the Science Zone.
People may purchase one or more of the 112 elements on a wall-sized, magnetic periodic table hanging in the Zone. Supporters' names will be displayed on the table with the element they purchased.

The Science Zone will match industries with an appropriate element, said Julie Sexton, executive director. For example, dentists with calcium, jewelry stores with gold or silver, plumbers with copper.
The elements range from $100 to $5,000. Those who purchase an element will receive a one year family membership to the Science Zone.
Elements bought for $1,000 or more will also earn the purchaser seats at the Eggs-travaganza brunch, where three unnamed elements will be auctioned off and named by the winning bidder.
 . . . source,   Jackson Hole Star Tribune

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