Re: Infinite number of elements??

From: Mark Tarka (mark_tarka_at_yahoo.com)
Date: 11/23/04 

Date: 23 Nov 2004 12:34:07 -0800

hog.badger@mbox.bol.bg (Paddy) wrote in message news:<aaba1f61.0411221139.78242907@posting.google.com>...
> realitytv2005@cs.com (RealityTV2005) wrote in message news:<20041122022940.08116.00001132@mb-m05.news.cs.com>...
> > Is there a limit to the number of chemical elements that can be made
> > (disregarding instability)? How unstable will they get as you go from period to
> > period?
>
> The answer to which I read in a Scientific American magazine thirty or
> more years ago. The limit is pretty much what we have now.
>
> Higher numbered nucleons are prone to spontaneous fission, but more
> importantly, the higher the number, the higher the tidal stress on the
> adjacent space such that the vacuum itself splits into a pair of
> particles, one of which is consumed by the nucleus, reducing it's
> number. Maybe in a different universe, where the vacuum energy was
> lower, heavier elements would be stable.

Uhm, this ain't the Paddy O'Brian whost I met
on InfoVax/comp.os.vms somst time ago,
would it be?

  Mark (Great Satan America 101 starts next semester
        at a forum near you; please wear protection :-)