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This January, scientists revealed they had identified four new chemical elements—and as reported by Science News yesterday, these elements now have official names. These names will undergo a 5-month public review, and if they are approved, they will be permanently added to the seventh row of the periodic table after the final approval by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC).
Sticking to tradition, the scientists responsible for the discovery of these elements were given the privilege of selecting the names and symbols. IUPAC has proposed the following names for elements 113, 115, 117, and 118: nihonium, moscovium, tennessine, and oganesson. Three names are inspired by the locations of the research institutes, while one is named after a scientist.
Nihonium, discovered in Japan, takes its name from the Japanese word 'Nihon,' meaning 'Land of the Rising Sun.' If approved, nihonium will be the first East Asian name to appear on the periodic table. (As noted by The Atlantic, four other countries have elements named in their honor: francium for France, germanium for Germany, polonium for Poland, and americium for the United States.) The chemical symbol for nihonium will be Nh.
The remaining elements were discovered and named by a team of Russian and U.S. scientists. Element 115 will be known as moscovium, or Mc, named after Moscow. It was discovered at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, in collaboration with researchers from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California and Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.
Until recently, californium (Cf), a radioactive metallic element with atomic number 98, was the only element named after a state. Element 117 might soon change that: Its proposed name is tennessine, or T, to honor the state where scientists from Vanderbilt University, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and the University of Tennessee made the discovery.
Oganesson, or Og, is named after Russian physicist Yuri Oganessian. According to Nature, Oganessian works at Russia’s Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) in Dubna. If approved, Oganessian will become the second living scientist in history to have an element named after him, following American physicist Glenn Seaborg, whose element seaborgium was named in his honor in 1997.
If these names seem a bit formal (or self-congratulatory), it's because strict rules prevent any odd or whimsical names from appearing on the periodic table. An element can only be named after a mythological figure or concept, a geographical location, a scientist, an elemental property, or a mineral. (Given the public's recent enthusiasm for naming an English polar research vessel 'Boaty McBoatface,' we support IUPAC's guidelines.)
“While some may view these names as somewhat self-congratulatory, they fully comply with IUPAC's rules,” said Jan Reedijk, president of IUPAC’s inorganic chemistry division, in a media statement.
With the new element names now proposed, people around the world will review them to ensure they are suitable across various languages, Lynn Soby, IUPAC’s executive director, told Chemistry World. On November 8, the names will be officially confirmed—just in time for the fall semester chemistry class.
