system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
What is the rationale behind the theory of the island of stability?

Is there any evidence that suggests that the existence of superheavy stable elements is more than wishful thinking?
gpt
If an atom has a certain number of electrons in its outer shell, it is expected that it will be chemically stable. Thus element 118 is expected to behave like a noble gas even though its chemistry hasn't been tested.

Likewise, there are certain numbers of nucleons that impart nuclear stability. These are called nuclear magic numbers.  For example, 50 is a magic number, and element 50 (tin) has more stable isotopes than any other element. It applied to neutron numbers as well. The next nuclear magic number is 126, so it's plausible that nuclei around that size would be more stable than those below.