The experiment was designed by Ken Gregorich, a divisional fellow in LBL's Nuclear Science Division, and carried out by a team including Gregorich, faculty senior scientist Darleane Hoffman, and postdocs and students from LBL and the UC Berkeley Chemistry Department. N.M. The isotope of element 106 produced and identified in the experiment consisted of 106 protons and 157 neutrons.
Isotopes are forms of the same element that vary in the number of neutrons they contain.
Although the chemical properties of different isotopes are identical, their nuclear properties may differ. Thus, this experiment constitutes direct confirmation of the original discovery, and paves the way for the long-delayed naming of element 106. According to criteria proposed by nuclear science researchers in the 1970s, naming of a new element is the prerogative of the original discovery team, but proposal of a name should await independent confirmation of the discovery. Because of the extreme difficulty of creating and identifying elements as heavy as 106, such confirmation can be a very long time in coming. According to Ghiorso, members of the original discovery team are elated about the confirmation and are discussing possible names.