Kind of confusing article. It says the magic number “82”. But then later says between 60 and 80. So I’m not sure which is correct of it I’m reading it wrong.
60-80 is its natural states.
The scientists were adding neutrons.................
Magic number of nucleons result in especially stable nuclei, relatively. This creates islands of stability in the periodic table where superheavy elements can have half-lives up to a few seconds. There are several magic numbers.
From wikipedia:
In nuclear physics, a magic number is a number of nucleons (either protons or neutrons, separately) such that they are arranged into complete shells within the atomic nucleus. As a result, atomic nuclei with a ‘magic’ number of protons or neutrons are much more stable than other nuclei. The seven most widely recognized magic numbers as of 2019 are 2, 8, 20, 28, 50, 82, and 126...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_number_(physics)