Four elements, officially added to the periodic table in December (and highlighted here in yellow), now have names that honor Japan, Moscow, Tennessee and a Russian physicist.
On December 30, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, or IUPAC, announced the official discovery of four new elements. But back in December, none of these newbies yet had a name. That had to wait until today.
Naming rights typically go to those who discover an element. And that’s what happened here. Element 113 was discovered by scientists at RIKEN in Wako, Japan. They’ve asked to call it nihonium, to be abbreviated as Nh. This name comes from Nihon. It’s Japanese for “Land of the Rising Sun,” which is what many people call Japan.
Element 115 will become moscovium, shortened as Mc. It refers to the Moscow region. And that was where the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research is based (Dubna). It discovered number 115 in collaboration with researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Tennessee.
Tennessee also gets a periodic table shout-out. It’s the home state of ORNL, Vanderbilt University and the University of Tennesse. So element 117 will become tennessine. It will bear the symbol Ts.
Russian physicist Yuri Oganessian was involved in the discovery of several superheavy elements. So the group behind number 118 decided to name it after him. It becomes oganesson — or Og.
“I see it as thrilling to recognize that international collaborations were at the core of these discoveries,” says Jan Reedijk at the Leiden Institute of Chemistry in the Netherlands. He contacted the labs involved with the newly discovered elements and invited their scientists to propose names for them. Those names, Reedijk says, now “make the discoveries somewhat tangible,” meaning seemingly more real.
Element names have to follow certain rules. So silly choices such Element McElementface would not be accepted. What are allowed: names reflecting a scientist, a place or geographic location, a mineral, a mythological character or concept, or some feature that is characteristic of the element.
The newly recommended names are now open to review by IUPAC and the public through November 8. After that, the names will be official.
And that’s not the end of activities to tweak the periodic table. Physicists already are probing for even heavier elements. These would sit in a new eighth row on the table. Some scientists also are working to confirm that copernicium is real. Somewhat smaller than the newest elements, it would be number 112.
To evaluate all of this ongoing work, chemists and physicists are about to set up a new group. They will review claims of any additional new elements.
Sadly Hoge ‘n’ Smith Episode 13 has been deemed ‘too sexy for the internet’ so the only place it can now be found is on the notorious and deadly podcast black market.
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2 Responses to “Hoge ‘n’ Smith Episode 13: Self-Fellating Finnane (No longer available for reasons of sexiness)”
Hey lads!! Listened to all the podcast in the last couple of weeks, great escape from big LC thoughts and stresses! Absolutely looove ye. Im from the midlands(iradio dropout) but if im ever in Limerick, will defintely be looking for Cla’s suspicious place of work 😉 in hope I might see the legend in person!! So! What happened to the guests challenge of eating the whole apple?! I think you should bring it back or maybe for the new year, bring in the cinnamon challenge!! 😀 after watching “Damo and Ivors” Ivor doing it, and i was in stitches laughing at that, i’d say Cla and Hogey would be UBER funny to listen to! Should probably cover the microphones though!! And what about whos the better person, Cla or Hoge?! Think you might have a chance this time Hoge 🙂 anyways, take care! Have a nice christmas, trying to make this one extra nice for my sister who missed it last year in Oz. (after hearing how ye were disappointed with the xmas the year after you missed it 🙂 any ideas?! 😀 so yeh, Merry Christmas and btw how do i get a hold of the infamous Episode 13?! Suffering withdrawl symptoms, havent heard a new podcast in too many days! 😛 chat ya later, Fabella from Bressieland 😀