Originally, this kind of nuclear synthesis was only carried out in the US at the University of California, Berkeley, between 19, so they gave names to elements 93 (neptunium) to 101 (mendelevium). But things have not always been like that. Of the four newest elements, two names are linked to Russia, one to Japan and one to the US, reflecting the international nature of the synthesis of these new man-made elements. So don’t expect Boaty McBoatfacium just yet. We want the name to make sense now and forever – a famous scientist, famous lab, maybe a Greek philosopher. We are very careful, because these names last forever. We are being very democratic about naming. The work of the German GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research at Darmstadt in discovering elements 107-112 – bohrium, meitnerium, hassium, darmstadtium, roentgenium and copernicum (as well as important confirmatory work on other elements) – is commemorated in their names.Īs the leading German researcher Sigurd Hofmann commented: Four countries have contributed to the discoveries of new elements during the past half century. The right to give a name to a newly discovered element is prestigious and has traditionally been seen to be in the hands of the discoverers. Oganesson is in Group 18 (0), together with helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon and radon. Tennessine is assigned to Group 17 (VIIB), together with the halogens fluorine, chlorine, bromine, iodine and astatine. Two of these new elements are given names ending in –ium, though no one yet knows if they are metallic or not the names of the other two are given endings appropriate to their positions in the Periodic Table. All but one of those are metals or metalloids the one exception being helium, first discovered in the sun’s spectrum in 1868 and given its name from the Greek word for the sun – ἥλιος (helios) – before helium was identified on Earth (1895) and the character of the element could be known. Most elements have names ending in “–ium”. The proposed names now are respectively nihonium (symbol Nh), moscovium (Mc), tennessine (Ts), and oganesson (Og). Until now, this quartet have been known by their atomic numbers of 113, 115, 117 and 118 – or the temporary names of ununtrium (symbol Uut), ununpentium (Uup), ununseptium (Uus), and ununoctium (Uuo) respectively. The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) has proposed names for four recently synthesised chemical elements, which complete the Periodic Table up to and including element 118. Fortunately for posterity, this element is now known as osmium (from the ozone-like smell of the oxide) and so far, no unpronounceable name has been adopted for any element. Finding it to be volatile, he gave it the baffling name “ptene”, derived from the Greek word for winged. It was Lavoisier’s contemporary, Louis Nicolas Vauquelin who not only discovered the element beryllium in 1798 but also in 1803 synthesised the oxide of another new element. Lavoisier was guillotined during the Reign of Terror in 1794, the judge allegedly commenting “La République n'a pas besoin de savants ni de chimistes” (“The Republic does not need scientists or chemists”). They included hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, sulfur, iron, zinc, mercury and gold. The concept of discrete atoms was proposed by Robert Boyle in 1661, but in the first chemistry textbook, Traité élémentaire de chimie, published in that portentous, revolutionary year of 1789, Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier listed a number of the chemical elements, including 27 known today.
CHEMISTRY PERIODIC TABLE QUIZ FULL
Indeed, while the periodic table may sound like a rather dry topic, it’s actually a subject packed full of the weird and wonderful. With the naming of four new chemical elements, it’s worth reflecting on their long and interesting history – and you can become a pub quiz champion on the topic in the process.
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