Element 118 Retraction

In 1999, physicists at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab reported observing three events amid high energy collisions in which it appeared that a nucleus corresponding to element 118 had been produced; in each case the nucleus had quickly decayed into daughter nuclei (Update 432). Two years later these same researchers came to believe that their analysis of the events, and therefore their claim for discovery of the element, was doubtful. The (brief) official retraction appears in the 15 July issue of Physical Review Letters.