Science News: Four New Elements Discovered
There’s antimony, arsenic, aluminum, selenium,
And hydrogen and oxygen and nitrogen and rhenium….
And so The Elements song goes. But those few people who can claim to know the whole song may have to practice new lyrics soon. As of this week, the scientific world has announced the discovery of four new elements, filling up the spacers left in the open spots of the periodic table at positions 113, 115, 117, and 118. These new discoveries complete the 7th row of the periodic table of the elements, thanks to the efforts of scientists from Japan, Russia, and the US. These teams will now be invited to suggest permanent names and symbols for these newly-discovered elements.
According to the Joint Working Party (JWP), comprised of experts from the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) and the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP), the discoveries have been verified against stringent criteria, and are being introduced simultaneously. In a statement on the IUPAC website, JWP chair Professor Paul J. Karol stated:
“A particular difficulty in establishing these new elements is that they decay into hitherto unknown isotopes of slightly lighter elements that also need to be unequivocally identified, but in the future we hope to improve methods that can directly measure the atomic number, Z.“
The new elements are as follows (with temporary names and symbols listed here):
- Element 113 (ununtrium, Uut), discovered by the RIKEN collaboration team in Japan
- Elements 115 (ununpentium, Uup) and 117 (ununseptium, Uus), discovered by a trio of teams from the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, CA, USA., and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA; and
- Element 118 (ununoctium, Uuo) is attributed to the Dubna-Livermore teams
Meeting the criteria for these to be considered as new elements is no small matter, nor is naming them. But where do element names come from? These can be inspired by a mythological concept, a mineral, a place or country, a property or a scientist. Once proposed, the names and symbols will be checked by the Inorganic Chemistry Division of IUPAC for consistency, translatability into other languages, and possible prior historic use. After the division accepts a name, it’s up for public review for five months before the IUPAC Council (its highest body) makes the final decision.
Whether the writer of “The Elements” song, Tom Lehrer, will rewrite his famous lyrics remains to be seen. He was unavailable for comment at the writing of this article, but one thing is certain: we’ll have to wait and see if these new names rhyme with anything before any decision can be made.
The full lyrics of Mr. Lehrer’s song (at least for now) are listed below.
The Elements, by Tom Lehrer
There’s antimony, arsenic, aluminum, selenium,
And hydrogen and oxygen and nitrogen and rhenium
And nickel, neodymium, neptunium, germanium,
And iron, americium, ruthenium, uranium,
Europium, zirconium, lutetium, vanadium
And lanthanum and osmium and astatine and radium
And gold, protactinium and indium and gallium
And iodine and thorium and thulium and thallium.
There’s yttrium, ytterbium, actinium, rubidium
And boron, gadolinium, niobium, iridium
And strontium and silicon and silver and samarium,
And bismuth, bromine, lithium, beryllium and barium.
There’s holmium and helium and hafnium and erbium
And phosphorous and francium and fluorine and terbium
And manganese and mercury, molybdenum, magnesium,
Dysprosium and scandium and cerium and caesium
And lead, praseodymium, and platinum, plutonium,
Palladium, promethium, potassium, polonium, and
Tantalum, technetium, titanium, tellurium,
And cadmium and calcium and chromium and curium.
There’s sulphur, californium and fermium, berkelium
And also mendelevium, einsteinium, nobelium
And argon, krypton, neon, radon, xenon, zinc and rhodium
And chlorine, carbon, cobalt, copper,
Tungsten, tin and sodium.
These are the only ones of which the news has come to Harvard,
And there may be many others, but they haven’t been discovered.
