How are we continuing to discover new chemical processes? Should we not have tried all combinations of one column or period? What factor allows us to constantly find more efficient elements or processes?
In: Chemistry
Element is made by smashing smaller atoms together in particle accelerators. It is a nuclear physic reaction, not a chemical reaction. Chemistry is between atoms not changes in the nucleus of atoms, that is nuclear physics.
We know that you can have atoms with more protons than the ones that exist naturally or we have made. The problem is to make them. The new we discover now ar very unstable and decay quickly but there might element with even more protons that are stable.
There is 114 know element lets say 80 is “common”. You would only have 80*80 =6400 combinations. But that is only if you have 2 atoms in a molecule. There is often more atoms and there is any way you can combine them in different physical structures
If you look at complex molecules like proteins they are made of strings of amino acids. You can have 100s of amino acids in a row. Humans use at least 20 amino acids.
So the number of proteins with 100 amino acids and 20 alternative is 20^100 = 1*10^130 That is 1 with 130 zeros after. The estimation of atoms in the observable universe is 10^82 so we talk about 10^50 possible combinations per atom in the known universe. That is the estimated number of atoms in earth.
So there is a limited number of simple combinations but you create more complex chemicals you quickly reach a combination that is impossible for humanity to ever test all even if we exist for billions of years and colonize the whole galaxy.
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