May 31, 2024: We're in the midst of a double cicada emergence, meet the superheavy elements that don't exist in nature, and a solar storm-spawning sunspot is facing Earth again. —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor | | | Across much of the eastern half of the U.S., cicadas have emerged en masse and are screaming their little hearts out (I, for one, can relate). But if humans can barely keep track of the days (tomorrow is June!?), how do these insects know when to come out and meet up with all their noisy friends across a huge swath of land?
How it works: Worldwide, there are about 3,400 species of cicadas, but only nine synchronize their emergence. Seven of those are found in the U.S., all of which are making an appearance in this year's "double brood." In a clever experiment, scientists forced cicada-hosting trees to grow new leaves a second time in the same year. Cicadas came out early, showing that the insects are tracking tree leaf-outs, rather than keeping time. How cool!
What the experts say: "Whatever the circumstances are that lead to the evolution of this life-history pattern, they are rare, and the rare things are always the hardest things to study," says John Cooley, a biologist at the University of Connecticut who studies cicadas. --Meghan Bartels, news reporter | | | At the end of the periodic table of elements, things start getting weird. Beginning with element rutherfordium (104 protons), none of the elements are found in nature; chemists created the final 15 elements, in some cases for just a fraction of a second inside a particle collider. Most deteriorate nearly instantly. In order to be considered an official element, a nucleus must survive for at least 10^–14 seconds (that's 0.00000000000001 seconds).
How it works: To create new superheavy elements, nuclear chemists use particle colliders to shoot a beam of heavy ions (large atomic nuclei without their electrons) at a target material and hope that the two nuclei fuse together. To make the heaviest known element, oganesson, scientists beamed calcium (20 protons) at californium (98 protons) for an atomic number of 118. To create Flerovium, they beamed calcium at plutonium, for 114 total protons.
Creating a Superheavy Atom | | | Why this is cool: As the nuclei of these superheavy elements get heavier, they start pulling in their orbiting electrons and strange things start to happen that defy the rules of chemistry. The electrons in oganesson don't appear to maintain orderly orbits around the nucleus, but appear as a big fuzzy smear. The element is also likely a solid at room temperature and then transforms to liquid at 52 degrees C. The weight of all the particles in the nuclei in the superheavy elements warps their shapes, often into oblongs or pumpkin-like blobs.
Nucleus Shapes | | |
What the experts say: What are all these superheavies for? "Everything we're doing right now ... it doesn't have practical applications," says Jacklyn Gates, who leads the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's Heavy Element Group. "But if you look at your cell phone and all the technology that went into that—that technology started back in the Bronze Age. People didn't know it would result in these devices that we're all glued to and utterly dependent on." | | | • The massive sunspot that gave Earthlings stunning auroral displays earlier in May is back. What will happen? | 4 min read | | | • We debunk the myths about tanning--like the burn protection of a base tan, or sun's anti-acne power. | 6 min read | | | • When neurodivergent kids (who have conditions like ADHD, dyslexia or autism) have a better understanding of how these conditions affect their learning, they tend to have higher confidence and academic success, and they are more likely to feel empowered and motivated, writes Jerome Schultz, a pediatric neuropsychologist at Harvard Medical School and a former special-education teacher. "I have seen that when kids understand how and why specialized learning strategies work, they became more invested in their own education, and—wait for it—they experience more success," he says. | 6 min read | | | MOST POPULAR STORIES OF THE WEEK | | | • How the Guinness Brewery Invented the Most Important Statistical Method in Science | 6 min read | • Antarctica's 'Doomsday Glacier' Is Melting Even Faster Than Scientists Thought | 4 min read | • Surprising Supernova Scars Cover the Earth | 5 min read | | | • Children, like adults, want to be fair and kind. At the same time, they can be quick to reject those they perceive as different. How does this contradiction arise? Psychologists reveal new evidence of how we can help children develop a sense of morality and justice. | 12 min read | | | • Conformational field theory explains why your morning coffee takes longer to percolate through a tall, narrow filter than a short, wide one. But it also has implications for fundamental physics. | 8 min read | | | Do you hear cicadas in your neck of the woods? Most cicadas appearing in this year's double emergence will be part of broods in the Midwest and southern states. Alongside the sizzle of a barbecue and waves breaking on the beach, cicadas are a quintessential sound of summer. | Thank you for being part of our circle of science-curious readers! Email me anytime: newsletters@sciam.com. We'll be back on Monday! | —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor | | Subscribe to this and all of our newsletters . | | | | Scientific American
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