Scientists Discover New Heavy-Metal Molecule 'Berkelocene'
49 comments
·March 24, 2025b800h
stronglikedan
It's like they decided flourine wasn't dangerous enough, so they made it radioactive too!
londons_explore
How fast does it evaporate in a vacuum?
gus_massa
It's a very hard question, borderline impossible with the current technology [1], but if you allow me to handwave and lie and lie even more:
It's a very heavy molecule.
The top "bread" of the sandwich has 14 Carbons and a few undraw Hydrogen, I guess 16. So the weight is 12×14+16×1 =184
Double that for the other "bread".
The "meatball" in the center is Berkelium 247.
So the total weight is 184+184+247=615.
Assuming the Berkelium is totaly covered, the exterior part is similar to Hydrocarbons in oil. There are many, so let's try to pick the correct one.
Each Carbon usually has two Hydrogen, so the weight is 14×num_C, so the number of Carbons in a fake equivalent is 615/14~=44.
Hydrocarbons in gasoline have like 6-10 Carbons, diesel has like 12-20. Parafin wax https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraffin_wax has 20-40 Carbons per molecule.
So this molecule is closer to heavy parafin wax.
Double bonds are also important, and this molecule has a lot of them, but my handwaving is not strong enough to deal with it.
> How fast does it evaporate in a vacuum?
I guess it will take forever.
[1] Edit: without a sample, you can probably measure it in the lab with a big enough sample.
thereisnospork
Probably not that long, uranocene (a comparatively heavy molecule of similar structure) apparently has an appreciable vapor pressure of 10^-3 torr or so at 200C.
Weight does matter of course, but intermolecular bonding/affinity is generally the more important consideration.
hnuser123456
249Bk half-life is 330 days.
A solid kilogram of it would be a lot of decays in a small area. It would heat up close to its melting point before glowing brightly enough in infrared to shed the heat as quickly as it's generated.
tetris11
I'm always amazed by these islands of stability:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_of_stability#/media/F...
phkahler
I'm fascinated by the island of instability at 5. There are no stable elements with 5 baryons.
perihelions
That one has cosmic significance (so I understand); that island is what choked off big bang nucleosynthesis from continuing beyond helium. The universe would be unrecognizable if there were a stable He-5 or Li-5.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Bang_nucleosynthesis#Heavy... ("Big Bang nucleosynthesis produced very few nuclei of elements heavier than lithium due to a bottleneck: the absence of a stable nucleus with 8 or 5 nucleons...")
p0w3n3d
This will be my band name. Dibs on that name!
saltcured
It's a confusing name to me though. Berkelocene feels like something geologists and anthropologists should know about, marked by a layer of sediment comprised mostly of hemp, LSD blotters, and decomposing concert posters.
zombot
One lonely berkelium ion, bereft of four electrons, and yet it is happy. Until an oxygen molecule comes along...
dschuetz
First meme about Berkelocene.
EdwardDiego
Kudos to the scientists for working out how to work with this element.
But I have to say, as a speaker of a post-colonial English dialect with strong British English roots...
...calling the element berkelium is either very innocent Berkley pride, or they knew what they were doing...
b800h
Not many people are aware that Berk is a piece of Cockney rhyming slang, although perhaps more now that it's listed on that Wiktionary entry.
Berkeley Hunt => C..
My grandmother used to use it all the time; she'd be horrified. Its meaning has diverged significantly from its origin.
RugnirViking
> Not many people are aware that Berk is a piece of Cockney rhyming slang,
I'd say at least the ~70M population of the uk would know it. Probably quite a few outside also
robocat
In my childhood in New Zealand I remember berk used to mean plonker/fool.
Wiktionary says:
berk (UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) a fool, a prat, a twit, etc. Although the term remains in fairly wide use, its specific origin and meaning in rhyming slang is less well known, lessening its vulgarity. Synonyms see fool and idiot.Loughla
Midwest United States we used to use the word Berk interchangeably with times we would use the word asshole.
I never really understood why, but now that I understand it's rhyming slang I'm even more confused as to why we did that.
b800h
Not the case at all. I'd say, of those people who are familiar with the word, fewer than 5% are aware of its origins.
WorldWideWebb
Moss used it in IT Crowd. That’s where I heard it first, and then looked up the origin.
stavros
I've never once heard the word "berk" used in the UK.
labster
I’m not sure which Berkeley you’re thinking of, but I’m pretty sure it’s named after the one located at:
Lr Bk National Laboratory,
Bk, Cf
Amhehbot
Four elements in a single address is an insane flex
perihelions
YTbErYb, Sc?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ytterby ("Ytterby is the single richest source of elemental discoveries in the world; the chemical elements yttrium (Y), terbium (Tb), erbium (Er), and ytterbium (Yb) are all named after Ytterby")
anthk
He/she forgot Na for National.
null
DarkNova6
Well, given the difficulties working with this highly radioactive element...
stavros
I'm going to with the former! Especially since "berk" still comes from "Berkeley".
ehayes
Uh, organometallic molecule? I was raised on the X-Files, I know the Black Oil when I see it.
nimish
is this gonna open some kind of cool new way to extract actinides and lanthanides (i.e., rare earths) from the ground?
VCs talk about deep tech and then they don't jump on stuff like this!
This sounds like it would merit inclusion in Derek Lowe's "Things I won't work with":
“Only a few facilities around the world can protect both the compound and the worker while managing the combined hazards of a highly radioactive material that reacts vigorously with the oxygen and moisture in air,” said Polly Arnold, a co-corresponding author on the paper.