To scientists, this is of greater value than an Olympic gold medal.
The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) has confirmed the existence of four new elements with the atomic numbers 113, 115, 117, and 118. Chemistry textbooks are in need of a rewrite with the addition of four new elements to the Periodic Table.
The periodic table in its modern form was invented by Russian chemistry professor Dmitri Mendeleev in 1869 and lists elements according to their atomic numbers based on the number of protons in their nuclei. Chemists could not only use the table to describe known elements, but also predict the existence and properties of unknown elements that were yet to be discovered.
Though many of the new elements were discovered as far back as 2004, the tricky bit has been proving that they exist. The new elements reside in a part of the table where the atoms are super heavy and so unstable that they exist for less than a thousandth of a second. Element 113, for instance, exists for less than a thousandth of a second. These four new “superheavy” elements are not found in nature; researchers created them in a lab by blasting beams of heavy nuclei at other nuclei inside particle accelerators.
Element 113 was discovered by the RIKEN institute in Japan. It’s working name is ununtrium and symbol is Uut.
Elements 115 and 117 were discovered by scientists from the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Their working names and symbols are ununpentium and Uup for 115, and ununseptium and Uus for 117.
Element 118 was discovered by the teams from Dubna and California, and is currently named ununoctium, with the symbol Uuo.
Now that the elements are confirmed, the discoverers can officially apply permanent names and symbols to them. The proposed names and two-letter symbols will be checked by the Inorganic Chemistry Division of IUPAC and then be subjected to a public review for five months to make sure they conform to the standards of consistency, translatability into other languages, and historic use. Typically, names have been derived from mythology, minerals, geography, or the name of a scientist.
sources: gizmag.com; huffingtonpost.com; cbsnews.com; npr.org