In chemistry, a synthetic element is a chemical element that does not occur naturally on Earth, and can only be created artificially. So far 20 synthetic elements have been created (those with atomic numbers 99–118). All are unstable, decaying with half-lives between a good year and milliseconds.
Nine other elements were first created artificially and thus considered synthetic, but later discovered to exist naturally (in trace quantities) as well; among them plutonium.
Read more about Synthetic Element: Properties, History, List of Synthetic Elements
Famous quotes containing the words synthetic and/or element:
“In every philosophical school, three thinkers succeed one another in the following way: the first produces out of himself the sap and seed, the second draws it out into threads and spins a synthetic web, and the third waits in this web for the sacrificial victims that are caught in it—and tries to live off philosophy.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“There is probably an element of malice in the readiness to overestimate people: we are laying up for ourselves the pleasure of later cutting them down to size.”
—Eric Hoffer (1902–1983)