Stable Islands in a Sea of Radioactive Decay

You want to know a super cool thing about humanity?  We have found ninety-eight naturally occurring elements in the world.  That starts with hydrogen with one proton and ends with californium with ninety-eight protons (we really synthesized californium before we discovered it in nature, but that’s besides the point).  Here’s the badass part: in the 1950’s, we decided that ninety-eight was not enough and started making our own elements.  We are now up to element 118, with the wonderfully temporary name of ununoctium.  Most of these elements fall apart quickly, but a theorized island of stability may just be over the horizon. Continue reading