A 41-year-old Israeli physicist, Dr. Amnon Marinov, has reportedly discovered a new super-heavy element described by a Hebrew University expert as “of supreme importance, because it would open a new field in physical science.” The discovery, which has not been fully confirmed, was announced Friday by Prof. Shimon Ofer, dean of the Hebrew University’s Faculty of Science. He said Dr. Marinov, senior lecturer and researcher in nuclear physics at the university, was on sabbatical at the Rutherford laboratories for high-energy research in Oxford, England. Prof. Ofer said Dr. Marinov had assumed the existence of a new super-heavy element on the basis of theoretical studies and that he had suggested that the Rutherford labs test them empirically. The labs, he continued, placed a large research staff at Dr. Marinov’s disposal and after a year of work the team found indications that the new element existed. Prof. Ofer cautioned, however, that there was as yet no absolute proof. If confirmed, the new element would belong to the “trans-Uranian” group in the periodic table of chemical elements–those heavier than Uranium. Dr. Marinov was born here in 1930.
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