This fascinating periodic table shows the origin of each atom in the human body. "We are made of stardust"

Credit: Jennifer Johnson

Here’s something to think about: the average adult human is made up of 7,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (7 octillion) atoms, and most of them are hydrogen - the most common element in the Universe, produced by the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago.

The rest of those atoms were forged by ancient stars merging and exploding billions of years after the formation of the Universe, and a tiny amount can be attributed to cosmic rays - high-energy radiation that mostly originates from somewhere outside the Solar System.

As astronomer Carl Sagan once said in an episode of Cosmos, "The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of stardust."

To give you a better idea of where the ingredients for every living human came from, Jennifer A. Johnson, an astronomer at the Ohio State University, put together this new periodic table that breaks down all the elements according to their origin:

Jennifer Johnson

To keep things relevant for the human body, Johnson explains that she cut a number of elements from the bottom section.

"Tc, Pm, and the elements beyond U do not have long-lived or stable isotopes. I have ignored the elements beyond U in this plot, but not including Tc and Pm looked weird, so I have included them in grey," Johnson explains on her blog with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.

The new periodic table builds on work Johnson and her colleague, astronomer Inese Ivans from the University of Utah, did back in 2008 - a project born out of equal measures of frustration and procrastination.

"This is what happens when you give two astronomers, who are tired of reminding everyone about which elements go with which process on a periodic table, a set of markers, and time when they should have been listening to talks," Johnson admits.

The periodic table works by identifying the six sources of elements in our bodies, and breaks them down into the processes in the Universe that can give rise to new atoms: Big Bang fusion; cosmic ray fission; merging neutron stars; exploding massive stars; dying low mass stars; and exploding white dwarf.

The way the corresponding colours fill up the boxes of elements shows roughly how much of that element is the result of the various cosmic events.

So you can see that elements like oxygen (O), magnesium (Mg), and sodium (Na), resulted from gigantic explosions of massive stars called supernovae, which occur at the end of a star's life, when it either runs out of fuel, or accumulates too much matter.

The incredible amount of energy and neutrons this releases allows elements to be produced - a process known as nucleosynthesis - and distributed throughout the Universe.

Old favourites like carbon (C) and nitrogen (N), on the other hand, exist mostly thanks to low-mass stars ending their lives as white dwarfs. 

Strange elements boron (B) and beryllium (Be), and some isotopes of lithium (Li) are unique in their origins, because they're the result of high-energy particles called cosmic rays that zoom through our galaxy at close to the speed of light.

Most cosmic rays originate from outside the Solar System, and sometimes even the Milky Way, and when they collide with certain atoms, they give rise to new elements. 

Interestingly, lithium is part of the reason why Johnson decided to distribute this new periodic table in the first place. If it's giving you a serious case of deja vu, it's because there's a similar version on Wikipedia:

Jennifer Johnson

But, as Johnson explains, the Wikipedia version is unclear in some places, and just plain wrong in others.

She says the "large stars" and "small stars" in the Wikipedia version don't make much sense, because nucleosynthesis has nothing to do with the radius of the stars, so we have to assume they mean "high-mass stars" and "low-mass stars", respectively. 

"High-mass stars end their lives (at least some of the time) as core-collapse supernovae. Low-mass stars usually end their lives as white dwarfs," says Johnson.

"But sometimes, white dwarfs that are in binary systems with another star get enough mass from the companion to become unstable and explode as so-called Type-Ia supernovae. Which 'supernova' is being referred to in the Wikipedia graphic is not clear."


Head over to Johnson's blog to access a higher resolution version of the periodic table, and if you need a colour blind-friendly version, she's got you covered:

Jennifer Johnson

Other articles on the same theme:

• Four new symbols have been added to Mendeleev periodic table ( Nihonium, Moscovium, Tennesseen and Oganessiin )

• 2016 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to researchers Jean Pierre Sauvage Sir J. Fraser Stoddart and Bernard L. Feringa

• A new theory on the Creation of the Universe, disprove the Big Bang

• What form does the atomic nucleus? New discovery may explain the mysteries of the Universe.

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The above post is reprinted from materials provided by Sciencealert . Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

Professor Jorge Rocca offer a new path to creating the extreme conditions found in stars, using ultra-short laser pulses irradiating nanowires

Representation of the creation of ultra-high energy density matter by an intense laser pulse irradiation of an array of aligned nanowires. Credit: R. Hollinger and A. Beardall

The energy density contained in the center of a star is higher than we can imagine -- many billions of atmospheres, compared with the 1 atmosphere of pressure we live with here on Earth's surface.

These extreme conditions can only be recreated in the laboratory through fusion experiments with the world's largest lasers, which are the size of stadiums. Now, scientists have conducted an experiment at Colorado State University that offers a new path to creating such extreme conditions, with much smaller, compact lasers that use ultra-short laser pulses irradiating arrays of aligned nanowires.

The experiments, led by University Distinguished Professor Jorge Rocca in the Departments of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Physics, accurately measured how deeply these extreme energies penetrate the nanostructures. These measurements were made by monitoring the characteristic X-rays emitted from the nanowire array, in which the material composition changes with depth.

HPLSE editorial tribute to Professor David Neely

OPN Talks with Jorge Rocca photo: Optics & Photonics News

Numerical models validated by the experiments predict that increasing irradiation intensities to the highest levels made possible by today's ultrafast lasers could generate pressures to surpass those in the center of our sun.

J. J. Rocca's research works Colorado State ResearchGate

The results, published Jan. 11 in the journal Science Advances, open a path to obtaining unprecedented pressures in the laboratory with compact lasers. The work could open new inquiry into high energy density physics; how highly charged atoms behave in dense plasmas; and how light propagates at ultrahigh pressures, temperatures, and densities.

Creating matter in the ultra-high energy density regime could inform the study of laser-driven fusion -- using lasers to drive controlled nuclear fusion reactions -- and to further understanding of atomic processes in astrophysical and extreme laboratory environments.

A strategy to achieve ultrahigh power and energy density in lithium-ion batteries Tech Xplore

The ability to create ultra-high energy density matter using smaller facilities is thus of great interest for making these extreme plasma regimes more accessible for fundamental studies and applications. One such application is the efficient conversion of optical laser light into bright flashes of X-rays.

Other articles on the same theme:

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The above post is reprinted from materials provided by Sciencedaily. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

World-first pinpointing of atoms at work for quantum computers

An STM image showing the atomic level detail of the electron wave function of a sub-surface phosphorus dopant. Through highly precise matching with theoretical calculations the exact lattice site position and depth of the dopant can be determined.
Credit: University of Melbourne

Scientists can now identify the exact location of a single atom in a silicon crystal, a discovery that is key for greater accuracy in tomorrow's silicon based quantum computers.

It's now possible to track and see individual phosphorus atoms in a silicon crystal allowing confirmation of quantum computing capability, but which also has use in nano detection devices.

Quantum computing has the potential for enormous processing power in the future. Current laptops have transistors that use a binary code, an on-or-off state (bits). But tomorrow's quantum computers will use quantum bits 'qubits', which have multiple states.







Professor Lloyd Hollenberg at the University of Melbourne and Deputy Director of the Centre for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology led an international investigation on the fundamental building blocks of silicon based solid-state quantum processors.

His collaborators Professor Sven Rogge and Centre Director Professor Michelle Simmons at the University of New South Wales, obtained atomic-resolution images from a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) allowing the team to precisely pinpoint the location of atoms in the silicon crystal lattice.

'The atomic microscope images are remarkable and sensitive enough to show the tendrils of an electron wave function protruding from the silicon surface. 

Lead author of the paper recently published in Nature Nanotechnology, Dr Muhammad Usman from the University of Melbourne said: 'The images showed a dazzling array of symmetries that seemed to defy explanation, but when the quantum state environment is taken into account, suddenly the images made perfect sense.'

The teams from University of Melbourne, UNSW and Purdue University USA are part of the research at the Centre focused on the demonstration of the fundamental building blocks of a silicon-based solid-state quantum processor.


Other articles on the same theme:

• What form does the atomic nucleus? New discovery may explain the mysteries of the Universe.

• A new theory on the Creation of the Universe, disprove the Big Bang

• Four new symbols have been added to Mendeleev periodic table ( Nihonium, Moscovium, Tennesseen and Oganessiin )

• Quantum computer simulates hydrogen molecule

The above post is reprinted from materials provided by sciencedaily . Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

Gas giants could have a layer of mysterious 'dark hydrogen' the third form of hydrogen new discovery

We've just found a third form of hydrogen

For the first time, scientists have successfully forced hydrogen into a state that exists between metal and gas - a form known as 'dark hydrogen' - that they say could occur naturally on gas giants like Jupiter.

If this is true, having the ability to study dark hydrogen in the lab might offer a greater insight into how gas giants expel heat and generate magnetic fields.

"This dark hydrogen layer was unexpected and inconsistent with what modelling research had led us to believe about the change from hydrogen gas to metallic hydrogen inside of celestial objects," said team member Alexander Goncharov, from the Carnegie Institute of Science in Washington, DC. "This observation would explain how heat can easily escape from gas giant planets like Saturn."

Scientists claim to have turned hydrogen into a metal photo: Science News for Students

Although hydrogen is the most abundant element in the Universe, we still have a lot to learn about it. Scientists already know that there are two forms of hydrogen - the molecular hydrogen we're used to here on Earth, and metallic hydrogen inside the core of giant planets, which has been squeezed until it becomes liquid metal capable of conducting electricity with no resistance.

Now they've created a third form of hydrogen in the lab, somewhere between the two.

Since the new dark hydrogen exists somewhere between a metal and a gas, the researchers think it could actually sit between the molecular hydrogen on the surface of Jupiter (and planets like it) and the metallic hydrogen of the core beneath.

That's because this intermediate hydrogen phase doesn't reflect or transmit visible light, but can transmit infrared radiation (or heat). It can also transmit electricity, albeit very poorly, which could explain how a magnetic field can be generated around the planet.

Alexander Goncharov - Wikipedia

This is quite important because, right now, we just don't know all that much about how hydrogen reacts to extreme temperature and pressure. To find out, the team simulated conditions to match up to 1.5 million times atmospheric pressure and up to 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit (5,538 degrees Celsius).

The Very Large Array (VLA) in Socorro, New Mexico. Photograph by Dave Download Scientific Diagram

As Michael Franco reports for Gizmag, the team recreated these conditions by using a laser-heated diamond anvil cell to put the hydrogen under extreme pressure. The device uses two diamond tips to exert force way beyond what we experience on Earth, making it more like the pressures found on Jupiter.

Earlier this year, researchers at the University of Edinburgh in the UK managed to produce a metallic form of hydrogen by putting it under 3.25 million times the pressure of Earth's atmosphere, another step forward in gaining insight into how the giant planets of the Solar System work.

As well as being the most abundant element in the Universe (accounting for three-quarters of its overall mass), it's also the simplest, with a single electron in each atom. Under high pressure, hydrogen molecules begin to separate into single atoms, with the atoms' electrons showing signs of behaving like those of a metal.

These new findings come only a month after researchers working with the Very Large Array in New Mexico detected hydrogen in a galaxy some 5 billion light-years away.

The study has been published in Physical Review Letters.

What form does the atomic nucleus? New discovery may explain the mysteries of the Universe.

Although most of the nuclei of atoms are spherical, there are "figures" most non-conformist - for example pear-shaped. The discovery could have important implications in clarifying some of the mysteries of physics and the cosmos.

It is suspected for some time that nucleus such forms may exist, but now, an international team of physicists has succeeded in demonstrating that.

The discovery could fuel efforts discovery of a new fundamental forces in nature, which could explain why the Big Bang gave birth matter and antimatter in proproţii uneven - more matter than antimatter. This imbalance plays a major role in the history of the universe.

Big Bang Confirmed Again, This Time By The Universe's First photo: Atoms Forbes

As explained by one of the researchers involved, Tim Chupp, University of Michigan, where the Big Bang when matter and antimatter were created in equal amounts they would have annihilated each other and nothing would have been - no stars, no planets, no life.

Timothy Chupp College of Literature, Science, and the Arts University of Michigan

Particles of antimatter have the same mass but opposite electrical charge to the particles of matter. Antimatter is rare in the universe, appearing only for fractions of a second solar flares and cosmic radiation in particle accelerators such as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN.

When particles of matter antimatter particles meet, they annihilate each other.

What causes this imbalance between matter and antimatter is one of the great mysteries of physics. The phenomenon is not predicted by the Standard Model - the theory that describes the complex nature of matter and the laws that govern it.

Large Hadron Collider restarts after two years photo: University of Cambridge

The Standard Model describes four fundamental forces (or interactions) governing the matter to behavior: gravity, electromagnetic force, strong nuclear force and weak nuclear force.
Physicists are currently looking for a new force or interaction to explain the imbalance between matter and antimatter.

Evidence of such interactions could be obtained from measurements of the axis nuclei of radioactive elements such as radium and radon.

Researchers have confirmed that the nuclei of these atoms are pear-shaped nuclei unlike most "typical" spherical or oval.

The nucleus is the very dense region consisting of protons and neutrons at the center of an atom. It was discovered in 1911, as a result of Ernest Rutherford's interpretation of the famous 1909 Rutherford experiment performed by cr and Ernest Marsden, under the direction of Rutherford.

 The proton–neutron model of nucleus was proposed by Dmitry Ivanenko in 1932.Almost all of the mass of an atom is located in the nucleus, with a very small contribution from the orbiting electrons. The diameter of the nucleus is in the range of 1.75(1.75×10−15 m) for hydrogen (the diameter of a single proton)to about 15 fm for the heaviest atoms, such as uranium. 

These dimensions are much smaller than the diameter of the atom itself (nucleus + electron cloud), by a factor of about 23,000 (uranium) to about 145,000 (hydrogen).The branch of physics concerned with studying and understanding the atomic nucleus, including its composition and the forces which bind it together, is called nuclear physics.

Pears make a new type of interaction effect is stronger and easier to detect.

"Pears is something special," said Chupp. "It means that the neutrons and protons, making up the core are placed in different locations along an internal axis."

Positively charged protons are pushed away from the center of the nucleus by nuclear forces, fundamentally different from spherical symmetry forces, such as gravity.

"The new type of interaction, the effects of which we are studying, do two things, says Chupp. "Produce matter-antimatter asymmetry in the universe only format and align the spin axis direction in these pear-shaped nuclei (spin is an intrinsic physical property of particles in the same category as mass or electric charge, is defined as the angular momentum or the moment intrinsic angular particle).

To determine the shape of nucleus, they produced beams of atoms of radium and radon with very short lifetime, which were accelerated, bombing other atoms, nickel, cadmium and tin.

Following this process, the nuclei were emitted gamma rays that were dispersed after a certain pattern, thus revealing pear-shaped nuclei.

"Our findings contradict some theories of the nucleus and other nuances," says Professor Peter Butler, a physicist at the University of Liverpool and leader of the study.

Peter Butler photo: University of Liverpool

Measurements made will also help on scientists studying electric dipole moment (EDM) at the atomic level, research into the discovery of new techniques to exploit the special properties of isotopes of radium and radon.

These research results, along with those of nuclear physics experiments will help test the Standard Model, the best theory that physicists currently have to understand the nature of the elements which constitute the universe.

Other articles on the same theme:

• New Theory Of Gravity Tries To Explain Dark Matter

• Vera Rubin, the American astronomer who confirmed the existence of dark matter, died at the age of 88 years.

• Dark Energy vs. Dark Matter

• 4,000 confirmed exoplanets similar to Earth