Question

Do you think that scientists should continue to try to create super-heavy elements and expand the periodic table? Explain why or why not.

Answer 1

Answer:

All scientific research helps to generate new knowledge and improve the understanding of what is currently known, so it is important to support all scientific progress as long as it is developed in safe conditions and with the aim of increasing the knowledge of the world that we surrounds and of the universe.

Explanation:

The super-heavy elements are a group of elements of the periodic table that have very large and therefore very heavy nuclei, because of this they are very unstable (sometimes they are only stable less than a second and then they decompose into other atoms more stable) and that is why they have not been discovered so far in nature.

Super-heavy elements are studied in special laboratories as they are created when other atoms of smaller nuclei are "stuck" through a shock that requires a lot of energy. This clash that a new element can generate is achieved after millions of tests are carried out, and in each attempt a lot of information is generated that must be analyzed by super computers in order to determinate whether that attempt was successful (created a new element) or not.

That is why it takes a long time to study and develop new elements, but during this time and through the tests we get very important information that allows us to better understand the behavior of atoms and ratify or assume new theories that advance in the scientific community which may not currently be applicable but in the future.  

Thanks to the past investigations of scientist along the history they discovered all the elements of the current periodic table that allows us to undestand the properties of atoms and their uses for a huge amount of applications.

Answer 2

But the hunt for new elements started with efforts to develop nuclear power and the atomic bomb during World War II. At the time, uranium was the heaviest known element, sitting at number 92 in the periodic table.

Researchers quickly discovered that when uranium is placed in a nuclear reactor, a complex sequence of interactions leads to the production of several so-called transuranic elements (elements beyond uranium).

Probing around in the debris of the first hydrogen bomb test revealed two further transuranic elements, einsteinium and fermium, bringing the total to an even