Nitrogen is element seven because it has seven protons, and so on until we reach ununoctium with 118 protons. So creating a brand new element requires loading an atom's nucleus with more protons.

In chemistry, a magic number is any number of protons and neutrons that leads to an extremely chemically stable element. Acknowledged magic numbers include 2, 8, 20, 28, and so on.

Protons are about 99.86% as massive as neutrons according to the Jefferson Lab. The number of protons in an atom is unique to each element.

The new element is radioactive, and while it is in the detector, it gives off alpha particles—two protons and two neutrons—in a predictable fashion.

But it cannot yet make elements. Here's how that step happens. In a Universe loaded with neutrons and protons, it seems like building elements would be a cinch.

What makes an element distinct is the number of protons it has in its nucleus: hydrogen has one proton, helium has two, and on up the periodic table to uranium, which has ninety-two. Creating new ...

The finding could be put to use at a new facility opening in 2020 that might create new elements—that is, nuclei with more than 118 protons—in addition to new isotopes of the known elements ...

What this means is that when protons and anti-protons (or neutrons and anti-neutrons) find each other, they annihilate away, and we cannot make new ones.

The first precise mass measurements of an extremely short-lived and proton-rich nucleus, silicon-22, have revealed the “magic” – that is, unusually tightly bound – nature of nuclei containing 14 ...

The more protons and neutrons scientists squeeze together to construct a “superheavy” atomic nucleus—one with a total number of protons greater than 103—the more fragile the resulting ...