Element 115

Discussion in 'General Science & Technology' started by Don Hakman, Feb 2, 2004.

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  1. Don Hakman Registered Senior Member

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  3. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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  5. Dinosaur Rational Skeptic Valued Senior Member

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    There was an interesting SciFi story about the development of element 120.

    In the story, element 120 was the start of a series of elements which were the reverse of unstable. Once synthesized, element 120 absorbed protons & neutrons from its enviroment and became element 121. 121 behaved similarly. The series of reactions continued until element 240 was created. element 240 split into two atoms of element 120.

    The half life of the entire process was such that the human race had about a century to find a way to stop the reaction or expell all the problem elements into outer space.

    It is just a fantasy, but pehaps Paul Dixon might want to comment and suggest shutting down attempts to synthesize further trans-uranic elements.
     
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  7. Jaredster Registered Senior Member

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    wow... that sounds interesting, what story was it?
     
  8. Dinosaur Rational Skeptic Valued Senior Member

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    Jaredster: The name of the story is gone from my memory. The human race never managed to save themselves. The best they could do was create some almost human robots and send them into space. Their technology could not produce a Star Ship capable of supporting humans long enough to reach another solar system.

    The robots were complex enough to build additional robots and had most human technology available to them. After much time & minor mistakes in building new robots to replace those worn out, the robots evolved into a complex civilization with some creation myths. They no longer had any knowledge of a biological creature who built the first robot. The minor errors acted in a fashion analogous to biological evolution.

    Finally, some robot scientists synthesized DNA-like protoplasm, but saw no use for it. They poured it into his sink and it eventually reached the ocean. The implication was that biological evolution would start from that protoplasm.
     
  9. Rogue Consciousness Registered Member

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    Sorta reminds me of The Gods Themselves by Asimov. Great book.

    The idea is pretty much that some creatures in another dimension with much weaker atomic interactions find out how to switch their tungsten with ours. The result is cheaper energy for everyone, but the laws of physics in their universe "leak over" to ours and the sun is in danger of going nova.
     
  10. Jaredster Registered Senior Member

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    awsome. Dinosaur can you give me some keywords, something to help me google with?
     
  11. Dinosaur Rational Skeptic Valued Senior Member

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    Jaredster: Sorry that do not have any useful keywords. I doubt that a search for “element 120" would turn up anything. I am pretty sure that the last line in the story was “Protoplasm is tenacious.” A robot scientist synthesized protoplasm and flushed it down a drain that led to an ocean. There was an implication that biochemical evolution would be started. Using the last line for a search is not likely to find anything.

    You might try the Art & Culture Forum. A few months ago, I posted an abstract of an Ursula K. LeGuin story that I had read a long time ago. I had forgotten the name of the author and the correct title of the story. Somebody identified the story and provided a link to a copy of it.

    Perhaps a post in the SciFi forum might result in some information.
     
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