'Nihonium', 'moscovium', among new
periodic element names
9 June 2016
Japanese scientist Kosuke Morita (left) and Science
Minister Hiroshi Hase point to the periodic table
displaying the new element 113, during at a press
conference in Wako, Saitama prefecture, on June 9,
2016
Four new elements have been added to the
periodic table
after discoveries by Japanese,
Russian and US scientists, an international
authority said, with the new substances including
Asia's first entry on the chart.
Scientists in Japan who discovered element 113
have chosen the name nihonium, derived from the
name of the country in the local language, and the
accompanying symbol Nh.
Russian and US scientists, meanwhile, have
proposed moscovium and Mc for element 115,
tennessine and Ts for element 117 and oganesson
and Og for element 118.
The International Union of Pure and Applied
Chemistry (IUPAC) has recommended the names
and symbols be accepted after a five-month public
review, it said on its website.
IUPAC and the International Union of Pure and
Applied Physics (IUPAP) bestowed the rights late
last year.
Synthetic elements are produced through
laboratory experiments rather than those found in
nature such as hydrogen, carbon or magnesium.
IUPAC said in the release Wednesday that newly
discovered elements can be named after
mythological concepts or characters, minerals or
similar substance, places, or geographical regions,
a property of the element, or a scientist.
Besides being the first element on the
periodic
table
to be discovered and named by Japanese
scientists, element 113 is also Asia's first,
according to Riken, the Japanese state-backed
research institute that discovered it, and IUPAC.
While generally welcomed, some thought the
Japanese name might be lost on foreigners.
"If you say 'NIHONIUM,' 'Nippon (Nihon)' is
something which only the Japanese people use
and won't be understood by foreigners….", read a
Japanese-language tweet.
"Nippon" is a slightly more formal variant of the
country's name in Japanese.
The other
elements
are named after the Russian
capital Moscow, US state Tennessee and Russian
nuclear physicist Yuri Oganessian
Japan has a proud research tradition and its
citizens have won about 20 Nobel prizes in science
and medicine, including two last year.
Riken hopes more potential winners are waiting in
the wings.
"We expect if kids know there is an element that a
Japanese group discovered, the number who get
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interested in science will increase," Kosuke Morita,
who headed the research group that discovered the
element, told a news conference Thursday.
Riken faced scandal in 2014 after what was hailed
as a scientific breakthrough in stem cell
reproduction by a young researcher had to be
retracted.
© 2016 AFP
APA citation: 'Nihonium', 'moscovium', among new periodic element names (2016, June 9) retrieved 2
March 2018 from
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