Discovery of flerovium

Flerovium is a superheavy element with atomic number 114, produced only in laboratories. Its first atoms were made by a Russian-led team at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, working with American colleagues from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, by firing calcium-48 ions at a plutonium target. The nuclei exist for only a fraction of a second to a few seconds before decaying, so chemists must study its properties atom by atom. Interest in it grew because theorists had predicted an island of stability, where certain heavy nuclei might live longer than their neighbours. The element was officially named in 2012 in honour of the Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions, itself named after the Soviet physicist Georgy Flyorov.

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