• Question: What is the most complex element you know?

    Asked by peter296 to Sonia, Roisin, Nadeem, Caoimhe, Brian on 28 Apr 2020.
    • Photo: Sonia Lenehan

      Sonia Lenehan answered on 28 Apr 2020:

      I think Plutonium would be the most complex element that I know of.

    • Photo: Roisin Jones

      Roisin Jones answered on 29 Apr 2020:

      I think if you take ‘complexity’ to mean the element with the most protons in it’s nucleus (aka the atomic number), the most complex naturally occurring element is uranium. More complex and heavier elements have been discovered in the lab, but they’re man-made and very very unstable, usually decaying in less than a second! I think the heaviest man-made element is called Oganesson: it has 118 protons in it’s nucleus, compared to 92 for uranium, and it vanishes in milliseconds.

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