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Man-made Inert Gas
February 22, 2007No not that kind stop that. Scientists in Russia took some Californium provided by American scientists and bombarded it with calcium and bad language until it turned into a brand-new element, number 118 (as it had 118 protons in its nucleus.) This would make it an inert gas - the first man-made inert gas in the periodic-table-of-elements sense. Apparently it only lasted a milisecond, before it decayed into element 114, then 112, then it split in half, and then it disappeared entirely due to embarassment.
Apparently element 118 has a sordid past.
You can find the article at LiveScience.