Element 117 created by second group of researchers

New Scientist : In 2010 and again in 2012 a team of American and Russian researchers created element 117 by firing calcium (atomic number Z = 20) into berkelium (Z = 97). Their discovery has now been confirmed by Christoph Düllmann of the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research in Darmstadt, Germany and his colleagues, who attempted to make element 117 to test their detection equipment for a planned experiment to create element 119. The researchers succeeded in creating four atoms of element 117, which decayed in less than 0.1 s. An analysis of the decay path also revealed a previously unknown isotope of lawrencium (Z = 103) when an isotope of dubnium (Z = 105) decayed via alpha particle emission . Despite the finding, further study will be necessary for element 117 to be included in the periodic table. However, that may take some time because of the difficulty in obtaining enough berkelium, which can be produced in only very small amounts and has a half-life of less than a year.