Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) is setting its sights on creating element 120 as part of a new US effort to discover the first elements in row eight of the periodic table. The move follows the breakdown of the US–Russian partnership, which had previously discovered the five heaviest elements, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Fair enough, sometimes explanations don't need a purpose. I guess my mind is in a place of hoping they're not expending some immense amount of resources on something like this when we have significantly more pressing matters out there to contend with. The world is a wee bit unstable these past few years and I'd be a lot more interested in avoiding some Mad Max / Dune outcome than adding another box on the periodic table.