Science fiction has evolved since the days of Jules Verne and HG Wells and now there are many different genres and sub-genres of sci-fi. One of the basic tenets of hard sci-fi genres has been the imagination of technology which does not yet exist. In more popular sci-fi franchises such as Star Trek and Stargate this feature has been manifest through the creation of fictional materials and chemical elements. This has been seen most recently in the Star Trek reboot where "red matter" is a key plot device. For the moment I'm going to forget that red matter is actually a bad rip-off of an idea from Alias (another JJ Abrams crapfest). The important thing here is that these fictional materials and elements are quite literally the building blocks of science fiction.
Quite often the more advanced technology described in sci-fi is based on some fictional material. The hyperdrive engines and cloaking devices in Stargate for example, rely on naqadah as a fuel source. Similarly the basic strucutre of the ringworlds in Larry Niven's titular novel are made from a material called scrith which is described as having a tensile strength similar to the force bonding atomic nuclei.
Imagining advanced technology is a wonderful thought exercise and the lifeblood of science fiction and for the moment there is thankfully, enough of the universe which we do not understand to allow these technologies to seem plausible. The same cannot be said for chemical elements though.
When I was first introduced to the periodic table by an illustrated dictionary of science book that my parents bought me when I was 8, there were 103 known chemical elements. Now there are 112 named elements and another 6 elements with temporary symbols. So the burning question is whether any of the currently discovered elements are likely to power hyperdrive elements or facilitate time travel. The answer it seems is probably not.
The oldest of the newly discovered elements is Rutherfordium. It has an atomic number of 112 and a melting point of 2100C. More importantly though, it is a synthetic radioactive element with a half-life of 1.3 hours. It's the same story with the other element too. All of these new super-heavy elements up to ununoctium have been generated in nuclear and particle accelerator experiments and are radioactive and unstable. So far there's nothing with an unprecedented tensile strength or the ability to contact the dead. As with everything in science though, there's no predicting the future, unless you've got a premium rate phone line. It is possible that in future some element like maclarium from Stargate with an atomic number in excess of 200 may exist with magical properties.
The only problem with creating new elements is that the newest elements we have managed to synthesise have been created in particle acceleration experiments. The Large Hadron Collider constructed beneath the CERN facility in Geneva is one of the most impressive scientific undertakings in history but at a cost of €7.5bn it is also the most expensive. If we do manage to create some element in fifty years time with an atomic number of 150 and a tensile strength in teranewtons, it's going to be so expensive that to make a nail out of it will probably make gold or platinum seem free by comparison.
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