PBS Space Time

Can We Create New Elements Beyond the Periodic Table

Scientists have been slowly extending the periodic table one element at a time, pushing to higher and higher masses, and have discovered some incredibly useful materials along the way. But the elements at the current end of the table are so unstable that they decay almost as soon as they’re created in our particle accelerators. Astronomers have found a cosmic phenomenon that may populate table.

Can We Create New Elements Beyond the Periodic Table

17m 2s

  • The Crisis In Physics: Are We Missing 17 Layers of Reality?: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    The Crisis In Physics: Are We Missing 17 Layers of Reality?

    S11 E6 - 18m 19s

    Big things are made of smaller things, and those smaller things are made of smaller things still. That’s reductionism in a nutshell, and digging our way to the smallest layer has been one of the primary goals of physics for ever. But what if, just before we reach the bottom, we find out that reductionism fails?

  • Is Our Model of Dark Energy Wrong? | New 4.2σ Results: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Is Our Model of Dark Energy Wrong? | New 4.2σ Results

    S11 E5 - 19m 3s

    The biggest news in cosmology in recent years is that the mysterious universe-accelerating entity we call dark energy may be fading away. The evidence for this is now strong enough that enormous effort is going into confirming this result. So what’s it going to take, and when are we going to know?

  • Is Our Model of Dark Energy Wrong?: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Is Our Model of Dark Energy Wrong?

    S11 E5 - 18m 50s

    The biggest news in cosmology in recent years is that the mysterious universe-accelerating entity we call dark energy may be fading away. The evidence for this is now strong enough that enormous effort is going into confirming this result. So what’s it going to take, and when are we going to know?

PBS PASSPORT

Stream tens of thousands of hours of your PBS and local favorites with WETA+ and PBS Passport whenever and wherever you want. Catch up on a single episode or binge-watch full seasons before they air on TV.