4 new elements in Mendeleev's periodic table have been named

The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) officially announced the recognition of the invention and named the four superheavy elements at the end of the periodic table of elements.

Below is the periodic table of chemical elements (also known as Mendeleev's table):

The latest periodic table of chemical elements (as of June 2016). Image from DePiep/Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Looking at this periodic table of chemical elements, readers will see 4 elements in red box and different from all the other elements in that they do not have their own symbols (abbreviations). Instead, there are other symbols Uut, Uup, Uus and Uuo; these are the letters of numbers like ununtrium (3 numbers 1, 1 and 3), ununpentium (1, 1 and 5), ununseptium (1, 1 and 7) and ununoctium (1, 1 and 8). These symbols are temporary to assign the 4 new elements on the periodic table before they are officially named.

And now, just a few days ago; on June 8, 2016, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) decided to change the above four temporary names to new, permanent names. They are: Nihonium (abbreviation or symbol Nh), Moscovium (Mc), Tennessine (Ts) and Oganesson (Og).

Here, the new element Nihonium (symbol is Nh, number 113 in the Mendeleev table); discovered by the RIKEN Institute of Physical and Chemical Sciences, Tokyo, Japan, is proposed to be named after Japan in its original Japanese name, Nihon.

The new element Moscovium (Mc, 115); discovered at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JNIN) Dubna in the suburbs of Moscow (Russia), was proposed to be named after the capital city and also the Moscow region.

The accelerator where new elements are synthesized at the Dubna Institute (Russia). Photo from CNN.

The new element Tennessine (Ts, 117) is a joint invention by the Dubna Nuclear Research Institute in Russia and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Vanderbilt University and the University of Tennessee in the US. It was proposed to be named after the home state of Tennessee of this large laboratory and two famous training centers of the US.

And the new element Oganesson (Og, 118) honors leading physicist Yuri Oganessian at the Dubna Nuclear Research Institute, one of the people with great merit in the invention of superheavy nuclei, including element 118.

Although the names for the above 4 elements have gone through strict procedures as known, IUPAC has only just accepted and announced them publicly. But that is not the final step because it is still waiting for public opinion. Specifically, according to the convention, from now until November 2016, after collecting and processing all requests from interested people around the world, IUPAC will make the final official announcement.

In history, such last-minute obstacles are very rare. Hopefully this time the last obstacle will not fall on any element, whether it is element 113 (Nh), 115 (Mc), 117 (Ts) or 118 (Og). Surely the risk cannot come to the famous scientific groups with great contributions to science in Japan, Russia, America and in general to world science.

According to VNN