[HN Gopher] Scientists Discover New Heavy-Metal Molecule 'Berkel...
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Scientists Discover New Heavy-Metal Molecule 'Berkelocene'
Author : gmays
Score : 119 points
Date : 2025-03-24 13:07 UTC (3 days ago)
(HTM) web link (newscenter.lbl.gov)
(TXT) w3m dump (newscenter.lbl.gov)
| EdwardDiego wrote:
| Kudos to the scientists for working out how to work with this
| element.
|
| But I have to say, as a speaker of a post-colonial English
| dialect with strong British English roots...
|
| ...calling the element berkelium is either very innocent Berkley
| pride, or they knew what they were doing...
|
| https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/berk
| stavros wrote:
| I'm going to with the former! Especially since "berk" still
| comes from "Berkeley".
| labster wrote:
| I'm not sure which Berkeley you're thinking of, but I'm pretty
| sure it's named after the one located at: Lr
| Bk National Laboratory, Bk, Cf Am
| hehbot wrote:
| Four elements in a single address is an insane flex
| perihelions wrote:
| YTbErYb, Sc?
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ytterby ( _" Ytterby is the
| single richest source of elemental discoveries in the
| world; the chemical elements yttrium (Y), terbium (Tb),
| erbium (Er), and ytterbium (Yb) are all named after
| Ytterby"_)
| perihelions wrote:
| YTbErYb, Sc
|
| Eu
|
| You could *almost* squeeze in a seventh, as Holmium is
| named after the city of Stockholm; and the city Ytterby
| is in the greater Stockholm area, in Sweden. Sadly,
| Ytterby doesn't seem to be contained in any political
| division with a proper name containing "Stockholm". So,
| that doesn't work. (Though Ytterby is in a _geographic_
| region called the "Stockholm archipelago").
| anthk wrote:
| He/she forgot Na for National.
| asielen wrote:
| Except all of the elements in the address above were at
| least partially discovered at that address or by teams
| with connections to that lab. Although usually it is a
| joint discovery with at least one other lab.
|
| Na is a bit older than those labs.
|
| Berkeley Lawrence elements: https://www2.lbl.gov/Science-
| Articles/Archive/new-elements-h...
|
| Lawrence Livermore elements:
| https://www.llnl.gov/article/41866/lawrence-livermore-
| credit...
| DarkNova6 wrote:
| Well, given the difficulties working with this highly
| radioactive element...
| b800h wrote:
| Not many people are aware that Berk is a piece of Cockney
| rhyming slang, although perhaps more now that it's listed on
| that Wiktionary entry.
|
| Berkeley Hunt => C..
|
| My grandmother used to use it all the time; she'd be horrified.
| Its meaning has diverged significantly from its origin.
| RugnirViking wrote:
| > Not many people are aware that Berk is a piece of Cockney
| rhyming slang,
|
| I'd say at least the ~70M population of the uk would know it.
| Probably quite a few outside also
| robocat wrote:
| In my childhood in New Zealand I remember berk used to mean
| plonker/fool.
|
| Wiktionary says: berk (UK, Ireland,
| Commonwealth) a fool, a prat, a twit, etc. Although the
| term remains in fairly wide use, its specific origin and
| meaning in rhyming slang is less well known, lessening its
| vulgarity. Synonyms see fool and idiot.
| defrost wrote:
| In the AU / NZ domain the Burke and Wills expedition of
| 1860-61 helped, fairly or unfairly, cement the
| association of 'Burke' with foolish.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burke_and_Wills_expedition
| Loughla wrote:
| Midwest United States we used to use the word Berk
| interchangeably with times we would use the word asshole.
|
| I never really understood why, but now that I understand
| it's rhyming slang I'm even more confused as to why we did
| that.
| opello wrote:
| Which part of the midwest?
| stavros wrote:
| I've never once heard the word "berk" used in the UK.
| b800h wrote:
| Not the case at all. I'd say, of those people who are
| familiar with the word, fewer than 5% are aware of its
| origins.
| WorldWideWebb wrote:
| Moss used it in IT Crowd. That's where I heard it first,
| and then looked up the origin.
| p0w3n3d wrote:
| This will be my band name. Dibs on that name!
| stavros wrote:
| Is it at least going to be a heavy metal band?
| zombot wrote:
| Must be, anything else would be unbefitting.
| thrill wrote:
| Whenever they appear they'll suck up all the oxygen in the
| room.
| zombot wrote:
| Explosively!
| jnsie wrote:
| Reminds me of a scene from the Royle Family (British
| show) where Anthony is managing a new band. When asked
| the name of the band he responds "Exit. That way,
| wherever we play, the name is always up in lights"
| saltcured wrote:
| It's a confusing name to me though. Berkelocene feels like
| something geologists and anthropologists should know about,
| marked by a layer of sediment comprised mostly of hemp, LSD
| blotters, and decomposing concert posters.
| b800h wrote:
| This sounds like it would merit inclusion in Derek Lowe's "Things
| I won't work with":
|
| "Only a few facilities around the world can protect both the
| compound and the worker while managing the combined hazards of a
| highly radioactive material that reacts vigorously with the
| oxygen and moisture in air," said Polly Arnold, a co-
| corresponding author on the paper.
| londons_explore wrote:
| How fast does it evaporate in a vacuum?
| hnuser123456 wrote:
| 249Bk half-life is 330 days.
|
| A solid kilogram of it would be a lot of decays in a small
| area. It would heat up close to its melting point before
| glowing brightly enough in infrared to shed the heat as
| quickly as it's generated.
| gus_massa wrote:
| It's a very hard question, borderline impossible with the
| current technology [1], but if you allow me to handwave and
| lie and lie even more:
|
| It's a very heavy molecule.
|
| The top "bread" of the sandwich has 14 Carbons and a few
| undraw Hydrogen, I guess 16. So the weight is 12x14+16x1 =184
|
| Double that for the other "bread".
|
| The "meatball" in the center is Berkelium 247.
|
| So the total weight is 184+184+247=615.
|
| Assuming the Berkelium is totaly covered, the exterior part
| is similar to Hydrocarbons in oil. There are many, so let's
| try to pick the correct one.
|
| Each Carbon usually has two Hydrogen, so the weight is
| 14xnum_C, so the number of Carbons in a fake equivalent is
| 615/14~=44.
|
| Hydrocarbons in gasoline have like 6-10 Carbons, diesel has
| like 12-20. Parafin wax
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraffin_wax has 20-40
| Carbons per molecule.
|
| So this molecule is closer to heavy parafin wax.
|
| Double bonds are also important, and this molecule has a lot
| of them, but my handwaving is not strong enough to deal with
| it.
|
| > _How fast does it evaporate in a vacuum?_
|
| I guess it will take forever.
|
| [1] Edit: without a sample, you can probably measure it in
| the lab with a big enough sample.
| thereisnospork wrote:
| Probably not that long, uranocene (a comparatively heavy
| molecule of similar structure) apparently has an
| appreciable vapor pressure of 10^-3 torr or so at 200C.
|
| Weight does matter of course, but intermolecular
| bonding/affinity is generally the more important
| consideration.
| gus_massa wrote:
| Yes, I agree, but ...
|
| > _Probably not that long, uranocene (a comparatively
| heavy molecule of similar structure) apparently has an
| appreciable vapor pressure of 10^-3 torr or so at 200C._
|
| 200degC(392degF) is hotter than boiling cooking oil (it's
| a hot oven to cook, but far from red hot)
|
| vapor pressure of water at 0degC(32degF) is 5 torr
|
| i.e. almost frozen water has 5000x the vapor pressure of
| very hot uranocele.
|
| Let's replace "forever" with "extremely slowly".
|
| > _Weight does matter of course, but intermolecular
| bonding /affinity is generally the more important
| consideration._
|
| I agree, so I choose a non-polar material to compare.
| (i.e. petrol instead of water). Probably petrol and
| parafin are very saturated and linear, and both change
| the properties of the molecules a lot. I'd better have
| choose something with more double bounds, but I don't
| have a very good example at hand.
| stronglikedan wrote:
| It's like they decided flourine wasn't dangerous enough, so
| they made it radioactive too!
| scop wrote:
| Does it go to 11?
| debo_ wrote:
| Someone out there is definitely naming their band "berkolocene"
| right now.
| zombot wrote:
| One lonely berkelium ion, bereft of four electrons, and yet it is
| happy. Until an oxygen molecule comes along...
| dschuetz wrote:
| First meme about Berkelocene.
| tetris11 wrote:
| I'm always amazed by these islands of stability:
|
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_of_stability#/media/F...
| phkahler wrote:
| I'm fascinated by the island of _instability_ at 5. There are
| no stable elements with 5 baryons.
| perihelions wrote:
| That one has cosmic significance (so I understand); that
| island is what choked off big bang nucleosynthesis from
| continuing beyond helium. The universe would be
| unrecognizable if there were a stable He-5 or Li-5.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Bang_nucleosynthesis#Heavy.
| .. ( _" Big Bang nucleosynthesis produced very few nuclei of
| elements heavier than lithium due to a bottleneck: the
| absence of a stable nucleus with 8 or 5 nucleons..."_)
| russfink wrote:
| So... what do you use this molecule for?
| platz wrote:
| learning
| ehayes wrote:
| Uh, organometallic molecule? I was raised on the X-Files, I know
| the Black Oil when I see it.
| nimish wrote:
| is this gonna open some kind of cool new way to extract actinides
| and lanthanides (i.e., rare earths) from the ground?
|
| VCs talk about deep tech and then they don't jump on stuff like
| this!
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(page generated 2025-03-27 23:01 UTC)