Page 28 - Aruba Today

A28

SCIENCEMonday 4 January 2016

Turtle-robot searches for
shipwrecks and treasure

Kosuke Morita of Riken Nishina Center for Accelerator-Based Science points at periodic table JARI TANNER a Facebook contest to
of the elements during a press conference in Wako, Saitama prefecture, near Tokyo. A team Associated Press name the robot), is one of
of Japanese scientists have met the criteria for naming a new element, the synthetic highly TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — the first robots designed to
radioactive element 113, more than a dozen years after they began working to create it. The Baltic seabed, littered go inside shipwrecks and
with war debris and ship- help underwater archae-
(Kyodo News via AP) wrecks, has fascinated ologists study interiors of
historians and researchers locations.
Japanese research institute earns through the ages. But the But its small size has a few
right to name element 113 underwater search ro- drawbacks: It is limited
bots they use pose prob- to shallow waters, unlike
E. KURTENBACH competition between sci- and Lawrence Livermore lems by further disturbing large robots, some of
Associated Press entists. The news is a morale were invited to name ele- the silty waters with their which can reach depths
TOKYO (AP) — A team of booster for Riken, which has ment 118. propeller movements. of six kilometers (20,000
Japanese scientists have undergone a reorganiza- Element 113 sits between Estonian engineers say feet) without damage
met the criteria for naming tion of some of its research copernicium and flerovium they may have found a from water pressure.
a new element, the syn- following a scandal over on the periodic table. A solution with their latest And it is not remotely
thetic highly radioactive stem-cell research. joint team of scientists in invention — a small, pro- controlled like tradition-
element 113, more than a “To scientists, this is of great- Russia and the Lawrence peller-less underwater ro- al wired probes, which
dozen years after they be- er value than an Olympic Livermore National Labo- bot that causes minimum means there’s also a risk
gan working to create it. gold medal,” Ryoji Noyori, ratory in the U.S. also were disturbance and lowers of losing it during missions.
Kosuke Morita, who was former Riken president and vying for naming rights for the risk of damage to sub- Last summer, it was suc-
leading the research at Nobel laureate in chemistry 113 after announcing its marine archaeology. cessfully tested in the Bal-
the government-affiliated told reporters. discovery in 2004. The unique feature of the tic Sea and the Mediterra-
Riken Nishina Center for Riken had earlier said ja- Morita and his group used U-CAT, about the size of nean by a group of Euro-
Accelerator-Based Sci- ponium might be proposed Riken’s linear accelera- a vacuum cleaner, is four pean researchers.
ence, was notified of the as a name for element 113, tor and ion separator to silicon flippers inspired by Priit Latti, a marine ar-
decision by the U.S.-based which provisionally had search for new synthetic streamlined sea turtles’ chaeologist from the Es-
International Union of Pure been named ununtrium. superheavy elements, be- arms and legs. tonian Maritime Museum,
and Applied Chemistry late However, Morita has no ginning in the late 1980s. “They move in a slow and watched the probe dive
last week. specific candidates under In 2003, his team began quiet motion and won’t to a flooded Soviet-era
“Now that we have con- consideration. He said he working to create element bring up sediment from prison in July off the Esto-
clusively demonstrated the planned to spend part of 113 by bombarding a thin the (sea) bottom,” says nian coast, and was im-
existence of element 113, next year considering a layer of bismuth with zinc Taavi Salumae, a design- pressed.
we plan to look to the un- name for the element. ions traveling at about 10 er at the Biorobotics Cen- “The fact the robot uses
chartered territory of ele- The IUPAC group gave col- percent the speed of light, ter of Tallinn University of flippers for movement is
ment 119 and beyond,” laborating teams from the Riken said. Technology. a huge advantage,” he
Morita said in a statement. Joint Institute for Nuclear Isotopes of element 113 The underwater probe said. “It can move in ev-
A joint working group of the Research in Dubna, Rus- have a very short half-life, has been developed ery direction.”
IUPAC and International sia; Lawrence Livermore lasting for less than a thou- since 2012 in the EU-fund- Latti says the museum is
Union of Pure and Applied National Laboratory in Cali- sandth of a second, mak- ed Arrows project that considering it for future
Physics also announced fornia and the Oak Ridge ing its discovery very diffi- focuses on new technolo- undersea investigations,
decisions on recognition National Laboratory in Oak cult. After twice succeed- gies for marine research. possibly to study the re-
of discoveries of elements Ridge, Tennessee the right ing to create it, the group It can stay submerged for mains of a 17th-century
115, 117 and 118. to name elements 115 and tried for seven years before four hours at a depth of vessel recently found in
Discoveries of atomic ele- 117. Separately, scientists further success, in August 100 meters (330 feet) on Estonian waters.
ments have often involved from the Dubna laboratory 2012. q a single battery charge of Bordered by Finland, Swe-
two hours. It’s equipped den, Russia, the Baltic na-
with a camera and lights. tions, Poland, Germany
Most importantly, it can and Denmark, the Bal-
easily be rotated in tight tic Sea is rich in historical
spots that are too danger- wooden wrecks dating
ous or difficult for human back to the 15th and 16th
divers. centuries, well-preserved
Salumae says the U-CAT, because of the sea’s low
an acronym for Under- salinity and cool water
water Curious Archae- that help keep marine
ology Turtle (winner of shipworms away.q