7th row of Periodic Table completed

Look! New elements are found! The 7th row of the Periodic Table is completed! http://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/jan/04/periodic-tables-seventh-row-finally-filled-as-four-new-elements-are-added.

Look at what the Nobel laureate say about this: "To scientists, this is of greater value than an Olympic gold medal”.

Just how do they discover elements? They smash particles together many many times and the new elements last for a fraction of a second. http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-new-elements-20160104-story.html

It takes several months to try this smashing experiment roughly 10 quintillion times. And we’re not always successful,” she said. At most, it will work about three times in 10 quintillion tries, she added

All that work... for a fraction of a second of the new big elements... is there use of those? If there is of any use, better use that in that fraction of a second.

This is olympic gold medal for science... but I fail to share the enthusiasm.

I never quite understood the periodic table: why is the periodic table not in a perfect box? Why is there 2 extra rows that needs an asterisk... Electron configuration I guess. Chemistry has always been over my head.

And of course, there are different world within the proton... the quantum world that only your PhD friends have a clue or so.