With the discovery of element 118 (oganesson) in 2002, the first row of the transactinide elements in the Periodic Table was finished.  The discovery of these 15 elements began with element 104 (rutherfordium) in the 1960s and spanned over five decades of experimental research conducted across the globe.  Consisting of all synthetic elements, the transactinides began steeped in controversy surrounding competing claims of discovery, alternate names, and retracted data.  After the controversies surrounding the discoveries of the early transactinides, the majority of the elements were subsequently created by multi-national teams of scientists, working for months at a time to produce only a few atoms each of these elusive and short-lived elements.  These experiments require large particle accelerators, targets comprised of rare and difficult-to-come-by materials, and fast detectors and electronics capable of detecting sub-second decay of a single atom.  In this presentation, I will present an overview of the discovery of the transactinide elements, the last of which were named in 2016.  The future of element discovery now depends on scientists making the next advances in technology that will enable us to pursue the start of the eighth row of the Periodic Table.     <br/>

Transactinide elements: How the 7<sup>th</sup> row of the periodic table was discovered

2019 Fall National Meeting

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Transactinide elements: How the 7th row of the periodic table was discovered

Transactinide elements: How the 7^th row of the periodic table was discovered