As of the writing of this book, 118 elements have been discovered. The lightest element, with only one proton and an atomic mass of 1.00794 g/mol, is hydrogen. The heaviest is ununoctium with 118 protons and an atomic mass of 294 for the only detected isotope. Considering that five new elements have been discovered since the year 2000, it seems very likely that more elements will be discovered. It is getting harder and harder for scientists to discover, or synthetically create, new elements, though, because the heaviest elements that have been observed to date are usually unstable and decay extremely quickly.