When doing hydrogen research, every once in a while something especially silly jumps out that has to be mentioned. French physicists and researchers at Grand Accelerateur National d’Ions Lourds (GANIL) have developed a hefty, heavyweight version of the hydrogen atom.
This atom called Hydrogen 7 has one electron and 6 neutrons, whereas normal hydrogen atoms have no neutrons. This obese atom lasts for less than a billionth of a second before it deteriorates, thus the help of Shaquille O’Neal is not needed to whip the tubby little particle into shape.
Researchers created the fat hydrogen atom by shooting a beam of helium (and presumably sucking on a little helium themselves). It is unclear the purpose of usefulness of creating such a big and beautiful hydrogen atom, but to me this just sounds plain silly.
This is almost as silly as Al Gore III going green, (and smoking green) and driving a Prius at over 100 mph. Creating a porky hydrogen atom and driving a Prius over 100 mph both can be done. But, should they be done?