Researchers from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory working with scientists from Russia's Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (Dubna) say they have discovered element 118.
Three atoms of the super-heavy element, which has yet to be named, were created by bombarding a target made of californium with high-velocity calcium ions. It quickly transformed into element 116, then 114, through alpha particle decay. This is the fifth "new" element discovered by the Livermore-Dubna team (113, 114, 115, 116, and 118). Element 118 is expected to be a noble gas and lie right below radon on the periodic chart of elements.