Where will the periodic table end? | The element makers

Chemistry World visited the Lawrence Berkely National Laboratory and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to meet some of the scientists who study superheavy metals. In this series of vidoes we ask them how they do it, how many more elements do they think they can make, and what led them to this field of study. They also tell us about their latest projects in which they will attempt to measure the masses of single atoms and perform chemistry on these short-lived elements.

The latest elements to be discovered take the total to 118, but how much bigger will the periodic table get? Ken Gregorich of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and Dawn Shaughnessy of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory – who was a member of the team behind three of the newest elements (moscovium, tennessine and oganesson) – give their opinions.