News / Science News

    IUPAC proposes four new chemical element names

    Wikinews | JUNE 11, 2016

    The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) announced the proposed names of four chemical elements recently discovered by scientists around the world.



    IUPAC proposes four new chemical element names.


    According to the rules of IUPAC, the four names — nihonium, moscovium, tennessine, and oganesson — are to be subject to a five-month period of public scrutiny which ends November 2016. IUPAC allows the teams of scientists who discover and synthesize new elements to name them, subject to process.

    Element number 113, nihonium, is named after the Japanese name for the country of Japan — Nihon — where it was first synthesized and discovered by researchers at the RIKEN institute.

    Elements 115 and 117, moscovium and tennessine, were co-discovered by researchers in the United States and Russia. Moscovium's name comes from the Moscow-based Joint Institute of Nuclear Research where researchers discovered the element. Similarly, tennessine is named after the US state of Tennessee where chemical research is commonly conducted.

    Lastly, element number 118, oganesson, is named for a Russian physicist, Yuri Oganessian, team leader from the synthesis of tennessine, element 117.

    Elements 113, 115, 117, and 118 complete the bottom row of the current periodic table. Further discoveries would likely add a new row on the table. Currently, these elements are given the systematic placeholder names ununtrium, ununpentium, ununseptium and ununoctium, respectively.

    The elements are formed as a result of colliding two smaller atoms together to form a larger atom. These resultant atoms are made in small amounts, are generally unstable, and decompose into smaller components in periods of time less than a second.

    IUPAC confirmed discovery of these four elements in December. These were the first confirmed discoveries since IUPAC confirmed elements 114 and 116, flerovium and livermorium, in 2011.




    YOU MAY ALSO LIKE

    A temperate Earth-sized planet has been discovered only 11 light-years from the Solar System by a team using ESO’s unique planet-hunting HARPS instrument. The new world has the designation Ross 128 b and is now the second-closest temperate planet to be detected after Proxima b.
    Teenagers who reach for objects, such as food or makeup, while driving increase their risk of crashing nearly seven times.
    Stalagmites in a remote cave in northeast India hold climate secrets that can help predict rainfall patterns, floods and droughts in the sub-continent.
    Chronic wasting disease (CWD) did not cross the species barrier to infect cynomolgus macaque monkeys during a lengthy investigation by National Institutes of Health scientists exploring risks to humans.
    The filling and draining of meltwater lakes has been found to cause a floating Antarctic ice shelf to flex, potentially threatening its stability.
    A lonely 3-mile-high (5-kilometer-high) mountain on Ceres is likely volcanic in origin, and the dwarf planet may have a weak, temporary atmosphere.

    © 1991-2023 The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin | Titi Tudorancea® is a Registered Trademark | Terms of use and privacy policy
    Contact