A STEM achievement that has always interested me is the artificial creation of elements that don't naturally occur on Earth. It amazes me that humanity is able to manipulate the world around us on an atomic scale and change one element to another. Technetium, for example, was the first artificially produced element made by bombarding molybdenum-98 with neutrons. Since its discovery in 1937, technetium has been found on Earth in very small trace quantities. In the time since technetium was first synthesized, 23 other new elements have been discovered by human creation, some made in a particle accelerator and others being the byproduct of a nuclear bomb. Unfortunately, most synthetic elements are too unstable to be useful and have a very short half-life before they begin to decay. For example, einsteinium has a radioactive half-life of 20 days, and fermium has a half-life of only 20 hours. Scientists theorize that these elements did once exist on Earth, but have since decayed into other elements such as uranium. These elements need an immense amount of energy to be produced, as many have only been discovered post-atomic bomb. It’s fascinating that mankind is able to recreate the conditions to produce such energy.