Why are certain elements beyond uranium artificially created?

Certain elements beyond uranium are artificially created because they do not naturally occur on Earth due to their instability.

The elements beyond uranium, known as transuranium elements, are not found naturally on Earth. This is primarily due to their instability, which results in a very short half-life, the time it takes for half of the atoms in a sample to decay. This means that even if they were produced in nature, they would decay into lighter elements before they could be detected.

The process of creating these elements is carried out in particle accelerators or nuclear reactors. These machines can provide the necessary conditions to force atomic nuclei to combine and form heavier elements. This process is known as nuclear fusion. In a particle accelerator, for example, ions (atoms or molecules with a net electric charge due to the loss or gain of one or more electrons) are accelerated to high speeds and then smashed into a target material. The high energy of the collision can overcome the repulsive forces between the atomic nuclei, allowing them to combine and form a heavier element.

The first artificially created element was neptunium, which was produced in 1940 by Edwin McMillan and Philip H. Abelson at the Berkeley Radiation Laboratory. Since then, scientists have continued to create heavier and heavier elements, with the most recent additions to the periodic table being elements 113 to 118, which were officially named in 2016.

Creating these elements is not just a scientific curiosity. It also has practical applications. For example, plutonium-239, a transuranium element, is used as a fuel in nuclear reactors and in the production of nuclear weapons. Other artificially created elements are used in smoke detectors (americium-241) and in cancer treatment (californium-252).

In conclusion, the creation of elements beyond uranium is a fascinating area of research that combines fundamental physics with practical applications. It allows us to expand our understanding of the universe and the nature of matter, while also providing us with useful materials for a variety of applications.