he Riken research institute has set its sights on
synthesizing the 119th and 120th atomic elements, a feat no one has
accomplished to date, according to one of its researchers.
The superheavy elements would be the first to occupy the
currently blank eighth period of the periodic table, said Kosuke Morita of
Riken's Nishina Center for Accelerator-Based Science.
The government-backed Riken recently succeeded in
synthesizing the yet-to-be-named 113th element by fusing the atomic nuclei of
zinc, the 30th element, and bismuth, the 83rd, through a high-speed collision
in a particle accelerator.