Name game: What to call the periodic table's four newest elements?
What's in a name?
When the four new elements just added to the periodic table get official names, don't expect Unobtanium or T.Lehreronium to emerge.
Naming new chemical elements is a super-serious business.
Biologists have the leeway to honor cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants by naming a Hawaiian mushroom, .听But don't expect a new element to be named after Harvard mathematician Tom Lehrer, writer of the beloved聽.
The four new substances are in the聽聽category, having an atomic number higher than fermium, which is element 100.
They are the first to be added to the table since 2011 and are currently known as 113, 115, 117 and 118. The new elements were聽聽by a team formed from the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) and the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUAPAP). They've been given temporary names 鈥� ununtrium (113), ununpentium (115), ununseptium (117) and ununoctium (118) 鈥� before their discoverers assign permanent replacements.
All four are artificially made "superheavy elements," that break down quickly into lighter substances. The creators of element 113 are聽. Element 118 was a collaboration between the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia, and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. The remaining elements were created by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee for the discovery of elements 115 and 117.
Social media immediately weighed in.
鈥淚 always tell my students that in biology you've got to watch out because we will name something after just about anything you can dream of,鈥� says Arthur Bowman, a biology professor at Norfolk State University in Virginia. 鈥淚n 1977, Arnold Menke named a wasp the聽聽鈥� after what we say when we find something new.鈥�
While IUPAC rules allow elements to be named after a mythological concept, a mineral, a place or country, a property, or a scientist,聽, professor emeritus at聽聽in Merced, Calif., says in an interview that it is highly unlikely that anything non-traditional will be chosen.
鈥淣aming an element isn鈥檛 what it used to be,鈥� says Dr. Hayes, former chair of the American Chemical Society鈥檚 Division of History of Chemistry and a previous liaison to the ACS Committee on Nomenclature during the time period when the current IUPAC procedures for naming transfermium elements were developed.
鈥淚t used to be that when a discovery was made, when you thought you had one, you named it something,鈥� Hayes says. 鈥淏ut this was very confusing because you could end up with three or four names for an element as three or four different groups or laboratories claimed discovery. What makes the naming important internationally is that the name is accepted internationally.鈥�
Things got serious during聽"聽which reached a fever pitch in a Cold War-era standoff during the 1960s between the US and Russia when both nations laid claim to the discoveries of elements 104 and 105 and IUPAC held the role of arbiter, Hayes explains.
鈥淚t took until 1997 to sort it out. 聽resulted in ... some very specific rules,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think there will be a Transfirmium War this time around. World politics don鈥檛 usually get involved in science. These scientists are friends. They鈥檙e in and out of each other鈥檚 labs in cooperation.鈥�
In the end, Americans named element 104 Rutherfordium, in honor of British chemist and physicist Ernest Rutherford. Element 105, Dubnium, is named for the Russian town of Dubna.听聽
Still, citizen scientist and candy maker Gregory Cohen, who owns the candy shop聽聽and is also the creator of a聽,聽is not giving up hope.
鈥淟ehronium is good, but I think ironic-ite is better,鈥� writes Mr. Cohen in an e-mail exchange. 鈥淚 think a truly unstable material would be suitable, as instability matches Mr. Lehrer鈥檚 career well.鈥�
Cohen adds, 鈥淭his would be a great tribute, better than a stamp. In any case, if it does happen, a celebration must happen when the news of it comes to Harvard.鈥�
Asked if Lehrer has a chance at being honored with a new element name, Dr. Hayes says, 鈥淭hat鈥檚 just not gonna happen. That鈥檚 popular science and how we learn the names.鈥�
鈥淭his is like naming your children, you choose a family name that has deep meaning to them,鈥� she says. 鈥淏iologists get to do all those sorts of things, more whimsical namings, because they have so much more to work with. In chemistry, we have so little that we really need to put deeper thought into it every time.鈥�
