QUESTION #366

How many known elements are there now?

Asked by: Yekaterina

Answer

As of now there are 118 known elements.

Note that the elements such as 118 (Oganesson) are very unstable, although Oganesson technically should be a noble gas and thus stable, it has an incredibly short life and will decay to element 116 in a fraction of a second.

It has been theorized that elements with atomic numbers approaching 125 will be stable at normal conditions and could be used for various industrial purposes.
Answered by: David Balson, Ph.D., String Theorist, PPARC, United Kingdom