Four Elements Added To Periodic Table (theguardian.com)

physburn writes: The Guardian reports that four new elements, with atomic numbers 113, 115, 117, and 118, have been formally added to the periodic table. The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry has now initiated the process of formalizing names and symbols for these elements. "The RIKEN collaboration team in Japan have fulfilled the criteria for element Z=113 and will be invited to propose a permanent name and symbol." 115 and 117, with the temporary names of ununpentium and ununseptium, will be named by researchers from Oak Ridge and Lawrence Livermore national labs in the U.S., as well as from the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Russia. 118, known for now as ununoctium, will be named by the same group minus the Oak Ridge researchers. Professor Paul Karol said, "A particular difficulty in establishing these new elements is that they decay into hitherto unknown isotopes of slightly lighter elements that also need to be unequivocally identified, but in the future we hope to improve methods that can directly measure the atomic number, Z."

Comments

Let Bob Lazar name 115

[RubberDogBone]

Let Bob Lazar name 115, since he claimed that was the element which powered the alien flying saucers he worked on at S-3.

Lazarium. Toaster Struedelium. I dunno.

Re: Let Bob Lazar name 115

[Anonymous Coward]

Elerium is the name for 115.

Re: Let Bob Lazar name 115

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

This naming convention is mandatory, on pain of having to beat a nighttime crysalid terror mission with a rookie squad that lacks plasma weapons.

damn this hipster science.

[nimbius]

call me a greybeard but ill be in the cold cold ground before I recognize Ununseptium. These damn kids with their designer isotopes that clock less than a second of half-life. superheavy artificial chemical elements are almost as offensive as those hooligans in the physics department with their infernal "strings." "oh its just a theoretical framework, daddy-o, in which the point-like particles of particle physics are replaced..." theyll say, but what in the hell do you put in place of them!? "those groovy one-dimensional objects called strings." theyll croon, probably high on their marijuana reefer cigarettes.

Mark my words, this never would have happened if Reagan were still president, and the science department hadn't quit making me handle mercury in my cupped hands for demonstrations.

Re:Not found in nature.

[Deadstick]

If it's not found in nature, then they all should be called Unobtanium.

More like unobtania, since there are now 28 of them.

Monster discovery

[RDW]

The RIKEN collaboration team in Japan have fulfilled the criteria for element Z=113 and will be invited to propose a permanent name and symbol

A radioactive super-heavy element from Japan?: Godzillium.

Fictional references to element 115

[Kojow777]

For those interested: Materials science in science fiction

Re:Not found in nature.

[RenderSeven]

... so unstable that it can only exist for fractions of a second ... is basically useless

Oh, I dont know... "attractium" is pretty rare and doesnt last long, but the decay can be delayed with ethanol long enough to have some specific practical, uh, uses. And it's quite stable in the presence of some heavy metals like gold and silver, and especially certain forms of crystallized carbon. Of course the longer you keep it stable, the more dangerous and expensive it is to dispose of when it does finally decay.

Re:Not found in nature.

[ChrisMaple]

No good. Plutonium is now a dwarf element.