Dubnium
⚛️ In Your World
Dubnium is a synthetic, superheavy element that has never been isolated in macroscopic amounts. Its most stable known isotope has a half-life of only about 28 hours. Because of its extreme instability and rarity, it has no applications outside of fundamental scientific research. Its existence is purely of interest to scientists studying the chemical and physical properties of the heaviest elements.
📖 The Discovery Story
The discovery of dubnium was part of the Cold War-era "Transfermium Wars," a period of intense competition between American and Soviet-led scientific teams to discover new elements. The first synthesis was claimed in 1968 by a team at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) in Dubna, Russia. In 1970, a team at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory in Berkeley, USA, also claimed synthesis. After a long naming dispute, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) officially named it "dubnium" in 1997 to honor the contributions of the Dubna research center.
📊 Properties at a Glance
| Phase at STP | Solid (presumed) |
| Melting Point | Unknown |
| Boiling Point | Unknown |
| Electron Configuration | [Rn] 5f¹⁴6d³7s² (predicted) |
| Abundance in Earth's Crust | Essentially zero |
⚠️ Safety & Handling
Dubnium is intensely radioactive and extremely hazardous. It has only ever been produced on an atom-by-atom basis in particle accelerators. All work with dubnium is conducted in specialized facilities with remote handling equipment to protect researchers from its lethal radiation.