ARE CHICKENS THE CLOSEST LIVING RELATIVE TO TYRANNOSAURUS REX?

Chickens are said to be the closest living relatives of the Tyrannosaurus rex. Ever since the finding was reported, the humble chicken has been put through several experiments. Once researchers from the University of Chicago and University of Chile attached fake dino tails made of wood and clay to chickens to see how the bipedal carnivore T. rex would have walked.

The analysis of DNA was done to the fossil of dinosaur also known as T-Rex which was found in 2003. The fossil itself was unique, because it contained a little bit of soft tissues like blood vessel, which allow the researchers to extract sufficient amount of DNA for the research.

The scientists were also comparing the DNA of a Mastodon fossil to modern days animals and the result was amazing. They found that the proteins found in the T-Rex fossil were most similar to those of chickens, and the mastodon were most similar to modern day elephants.

For a long time, actually scientists have predicted the correlation between birds and dinosaurs based on the shape of their bones. But that was all just a prediction without any further researches. And the research conducted in 2008 gave the real answer.

“We determined that T rex, in fact, grouped with birds – ostrich and chicken – better than any other organism that we studied,” said Prof John Asara from Harvard to Telegraph. It determined avians’ relationships with non-avian dinosaur’s evolution.

“We also show that it groups better with birds than modern reptiles, such as alligators and green anole lizards,” he continued. It means that although dinosaurs were reptiles, modern days reptiles are their more distant cousins rather than birds.

Yes, we all know that dinosaurs met the extinction when a giant asteroid hit the earth, but actually not all of those dinosaurs died out. But actually, some dinosaurs with smaller size didn’t die out and survived the Armageddon. Those dinosaurs are the ones who evolved to nowadays birds.

The smaller size of their bodies required less food than those with bigger size. And it was also easier for them to find shelter from following disasters after the asteroid hit the earth. Maybe that was why they could survive and finally maintain their kinds until evolving to nowadays modern avian.

As a prove, you can trace chicken’s genetic ancestry to find out the look of the ancestor of this animal. And if you can do it far enough, you will find that its look resembles the shape of the fossils of dinosaurs you can find in the museum.

Credit : Earth buddies

Picture Credit : Google 

What is element number 118?

Oganesson is the element with atomic number 118. Very little is known about this element. It is classified as a non-metal and is expected to be a gas.

The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) approved the name oganesson for element 118 in November 2016. This name honours Yuri Oganessian, a famous scientist.

This element was discovered by a team of Russian scientists at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia in the year 2002. A team at the Lawrence Berkeley Labs in California published a paper in 1999 announcing the discovery of element 118. But their results could not be repeated and the team took back their paper.

Later, in 2006, the element was officially announced by the researchers at Dubna and by the team at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, who were working with the Dubna scientists.

Picture Credit : Google 

When was moscovium made?

Moscovium is a synthetic element. Only a few details are known about it. It was earlier referred to as ununpentium, a placeholder name that means one-one five in Latin. The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) approved the name moscovium for element 115 in 2016.

It was discovered in 2003 and announced on February 2, 2004. Moscovium was created and announced by the scientists at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia, and the scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the United States.

The element is named in honour of the region where experiments linked to its creation took place.

Picture Credit : Google 

Who made copernicium first?

Copernicium was first made in 1996. Researchers led by Sigurd Hofmann at the Heavy Ion Research Laboratory in Darmstadt, Germany, produced a single atom of copernicium-277. Very recently, atoms of copernicium-281 and copernicium-284 have been recorded during the decay of flerovium.

Copernicium gets its name after Nicolaus Copernicus, who started the scientific revolution with his theory that the Earth orbits the Sun. Copernicium is a synthetic metal. It is also radioactive and has only been produced in small amounts. As a result, it is used in research projects only.

Picture Credit : Google 

Is flerovium radioactive?

Flerovium was first made in Dubna, Russia in 1998. The scientists from the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in California led by Yuri Oganessian and Ken Moody jointly conducted studies on this element and prepared it many times. Thus The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) announced its discovery in June 2011. The element gets its name in honour of Georgy Flerov, a Russian nuclear physicist.

Picture Credit : Google 

 

What is element number 111?

Roentgenium, element 111, is named in honour of Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen, who discovered the X-rays. This element was discovered in the year 1994 by a team of scientists from Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung, which was led by Peter Armbruster and Gottfried Monzenber.

Roentgenium is a synthetically produced radioactive element and very little is known about it.

Picture Credit : Google 

How were the elements bohrium, hassium, and meitnerium discovered?

Bohrium was first discovered in the year 1976 by a group of scientists in Dubna, Russia. Bohrium was named after Niels Bohr, a Danish physicist. Until the name was finalized, it was known as nielsbohrium.

Hassium was first created by a team of scientists led by Peter Armbruster and Gottfried Münzenber at the Heavy Ion Research Laboratory in Darmstadt, Germany in the year 1984. The element is radioactive. Its name is derived from the Latin name for the German state of Hesse.

Meitnerium was first synthesized by research scientists in 1982. The team of scientists led by Peter Armbruster and Gottfried Münzenber at the Heavy Ion Research Laboratory in Darmstadt, Germany made the discovery.

Picture Credit : Google 

How were rutherfordium and dubnium discovered?

The first super-heavy element to be discovered was rutherfordium. This element may have been first synthesized in 1964 by a team of scientists at Dubna, Russia, led by Georgy Flerov. But this discovery was not universally accepted. So, they carried out the synthesis again at Dubna in 1966, which confirmed the1964 results.

Later, a team of scientists at the University of California, Berkeley led by Albert Ghiorso successfully synthesized rutherfordium by bombarding a californium target with carbon-12 and carbon-13 ions.

In 1992, the IUPAC decided that scientists from both Berkeley and Dubna should share the credit of the discovery and ruled that the element would be called rutherfordium. 

Similarly, the credit for the discovery of dubnium is shared between the scientists at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Dubna, Russia, and the scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, California.

Picture Credit : Google

Why is it said that the discovery of nobelium was controversial? When was lawrencium discovered?

In 1966, the researchers at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia, synthesized nobelium for the first time. The element was named after Alfred Nobel.

Element 102 was proposed to be named as nobelium in 1957 by scientists from the Nobel Institute of Physics in Sweden, who thought they had produced it. But they had not made nobelium. Later, in 1958, scientists at the University of California, Berkeley claimed that they had made the element, but IUPAC (International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry) ruled that the discovery was most likely to have been made in Dubna in 1966. Since nobelium is produced in small quantities only, it is mostly used for scientific research.

Lawrencium was synthesized by Albert Ghiorso, Torbjørn Sikkeland, Almon Larsh, and Robert Latimer at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, California in 1961. It gets its name after Ernest Lawrence, who invented the cyclotron particle accelerator.

Picture Credit : Google

When was berkelium discovered? From where did californium get its name?

Berkelium was named after the city of its origin, Berkeley, California. It was first produced at the University of California, Berkeley by Stanley G. Thompson, Glenn T. Seaborg, Kenneth Street Jr., and Albert Ghiorso in 1949.

A number of alloys and compounds of berkelium have been prepared and studied so far. Since it is artificially produced in small amounts only, berkelium is mainly used in basic scientific research.

Californium was first produced by Stanley Thompson, Kenneth Street, Albert Ghiorso and Glenn Seaborg in 1950. They were based in California, U.S.A. The element was isolated for the first time in large quantities by Burris Cunningham and Stanley Thompson in 1958 at the Materials Testing Reactor in Arco, Idaho. The process involved prolonged (five years) neutron irradiation of plutonium-239. The element was named after the U.S. State of California and the University of California.

The isotope californium-252 (with a half-life of 2.645 years) is produced in nuclear reactors. This isotope has a number of uses. It is used as a neutron emitter, which produces neutrons for beginning nuclear reactions.

Picture Credit : Google

What is the common connection between einsteinium and fermium?

Einsteinium-253, an isotope of einsteinium, was identified by a team of scientists from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the Argonne National Laboratory, and the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory in 1952. This project was led by Albert Ghiorso.

The discovery of einsteinium was quite unexpected. It was identified after the first thermonuclear explosion which took place in the Pacific on October 31, 1952. Fall-out material gathered from a neighbouring atoll was sent to Berkeley, California for analysis. Within a month they had discovered and identified 200 atoms of a new element einsteinium. It was named after Albert Einstein.

Fermium was also discovered unexpectedly when this debris was further analyzed. But these results were not published until 1955. This element was named after Enrico Fermi, a nuclear physicist.

Picture Credit : Google

When was uranium discovered first? How did neptunium get its name?

The element uranium was discovered in 1789 by Martin Heinrich Klaproth. He obtained it from the mineral pitchblende. It was named after the planet Uranus, which was then recently discovered. Uranium metal was isolated in 1841 by the French chemist Eugene-Melchior Peligot.

Neptunium was first produced in the year 1940 by Edwin McMillan and Philip H. Abelson at the Berkeley Radiation Laboratory of the University of California. It is named after the planet Neptune.

Picture Credit : Google

Who were the discoverers of americium and curium?

Americium was discovered by Glenn Seaborg, Albert Ghiorso, Ralph James, and Tom Morgan. The element was chemically identified at the metallurgical laboratory at the University of Chicago. It is a synthetic element created during nuclear reactions of heavy elements. Americium is highly radioactive and can be dangerous when handled incorrectly; it can cause severe illnesses.

Curium was first referred to as ‘delirium’ because of the difficulties faced by the scientists in trying to isolate it from americium. In 1952, W. W. Crane, J. C. Wallmann, and Burris B. Cunningham prepared curium in metallic form for the first time at Berkeley, California. The element is named after Marie and Pierre Curie.

Picture Credit : Google

How was thorium isolated?

The element thorium was discovered by Jöns Jacob Berzelius in 1828. He received a sample of an unusual black mineral. This mineral contained a large number of elements and it also had another substance that Berzelius could not identify, which eventually led to the discovery of thorium.

After some analysis, he concluded that the mineral contained a new element and he called the black mineral thorite, as a tribute to the Scandinavian god Thor. Later, he confirmed that thorite was an oxide of a new element, which he named thorium.

Thorium was discovered to be radioactive by Gerhard Schmidt in 1898. After uranium, it was the first element to be identified as such. The most important discovery about thorium took place in the early 1900s when Ernest Rutherford and Frederick Soddy found that the element decayed into other elements at a fixed rate. It was a key discovery in our understanding of the radioactive elements.

Picture Credit : Google

Which is the element with atomic number 86?

Radon, atomic number 86, was discovered as radon gas in 1900 by Fredrich E. Dorn in Halle, Germany. He called it radium emanation as the gas came from the element radium, which he was working with. Sir William Ramsay and Robert Gray isolated the gas and named it niton in the year 1908. The element has been called radon since 1923. This name is in honour of radium, which is one of its sources. Radon is one of the earliest discovered radioactive elements. It was identified after uranium, thorium, polonium and radium.

Radon is highly radioactive and causes cancer.

Picture Credit : Google