'Nihonium', 'moscovium', among new periodic element names

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'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

                               1 / 2

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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 

https://phys.org/news/2016-06-nihonium-moscovium-periodic-element.html

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