To discover the elements, researchers at the three labs slammed lighter nuclei into one another and looked for radioactive decays that should come from the new elements. Ununtrium and ununpentium are thought to be metals. Ununseptium could be a metalloid. The fourth element, ununoctium, may be a gas, like other elements, helium, neon and argon. It is hard to know for sure because so few atoms of each element have ever been made. Paul Karol, chair of the IUPAC panel that verified the elements, said: “It will be a long time before we can find practical uses for the new elements.”
How did researchers discover the elements?
By creating collisions between less heavy nuclei By inducing radioactive decay of other elements By transforming metalloid elements into gasses By removing protons from previously discovered elements