To the human being like to name things, among other things because it is useful. Today we officially have the names of the new elements.
In case anyone is a little lost or does not read Medciencia before joining omicrono We are going to remind you that it is that of the 4 new elements that now have a name. Back in January of this year, when we were still opening the gifts of kings, there was someone who was in the middle of a worldwide presentation with few precedents, and it was that he had managed to create 4 new elements in one run.
Now we have the names of the new elements, but before talking about what they are and why, I think it is important to do a review of why new elements are still being sought, when we still don’t know very well how to combine all the ones we already have. Since many times with so much discovery and so much news, one forgets that behind each experiment to very well calculated results that predict what you expect to find.
Why are you looking for heavier and heavier elements
The new items are the heaviest to date and that is not a coincidence but something very well calculated. As we already explained at the time, as the atoms are heavier, they become unstable. A very clear example is that of Uranium, an unstable material that decays radioactively to lighter and more stable elements. However, there is, theoretically, an island of stability beyond the known elements until now.
On this island of stability the elements that are even heavier than any discovered, but they are stable and they do not emit radiation. These 4 elements discovered earlier in the year are the way in the right direction and having the names of the new elements is the way to remember them more easily than Element 113, 114.
What are the names of the new elements and why
The truth is that, as has happened lately, they have not broken too much the head at the time of naming the elements and they have chosen tributes to the places where they were found or to important characters in their history. Perhaps the most interesting is element 113, now known as Nihonium (Nh), for the Spanish speakers Nihonio, which is not a tribute to the hotel company but to Japan, the country where it was discovered since Nihon is one of the ways of saying Japan in its native language.
Then we have the 115, Moscovio (Mc), Moscovio for those who do not speak foreign, with obvious allusions to the city and Russian region. Continuing with the names of the new elements we come to 117, Tennessine (Ts) that we should probably translate as Tenenesio and that refers to the American region, and to finish the 118 Ognesson (Og) that we will arrive as Ognesn almost certainly and that refers to Professor Ognesson for their contributions to the synthesis of new heavy elements.
Of course all these names are much better than those temporarily assigned like Ununseptium; Thank you.
At last! The new elements are already in the periodic table
iupac_periodic_table_1024
Almost a year after their discovery, and six months after they were named, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) has finally given this November 30, 2016 the go-ahead for both names and their entry in the periodic table.
Five months of public review have been necessary for them to conclude that the four elements, with the proposed names, comply with the historical custom of be named after a scientist’s name or a geographic region, and with suffixes -ium or -ine as a finishing touch.
Therefore, if you had a periodic table decorating some location of your house or workplace, it is time to change it. You know, renew or die.
