The members of the Applied and Pure Chemistry International Union just announced that they added four more elements to the periodic table. This is the first time in five years when extra chemical elements were added to the Mendeleev table.

It’s Been a While Since New Elements Were Added

The last time that a chemical element was added to the Periodic Table of Elements was in 2011 when Darmstadtium (Ds), Copernicium (Cn), and Roentgenium (Rg) were added as elements 110, 112, and respectively 111.

Choosing the Name Is a Bit Difficult

Usually, the name of a new chemical element is given by the person (or persons) that discover it. Most of the times, the scientist that spent his or her lifetime studying the element is remembered by posterity by giving his or her name to the substance, mineral, or gaseous element.

However, it is not a rule that the discovery must bear the name of the discoverer. Some researchers prefer to honor previous scientists and name their findings after the people that inspired them to pursue the arts in the first place. That is actually how Copernicium came to be.

Other approved “sources of inspiration” are mythological concepts or creatures, a property of the element, a mineral, and a place.

The Scientists Preferred to Honor the Place of Origin

All of the four elements were named after locations. One, in particular, was meant to celebrate the fact that it is the first one to be discovered on Asian soil.

The researchers that have worked with the latest additions are going for Nihonium, which is one of the ways in which Japanese people refer to their country.

The second one is Moscovium, which obviously celebrates Moscow. The third one is Tennessine, honoring the state of origin of one of the scientists involved in the research.

The fourth and final one is Oganesson, a name inspired by Yuri Oganessian, a Russian physicist that was a part of the discovery of some of the superheavy elements.

The Four More Elements Added Are Not Naturally Occurring

The latest additions to Mendeleev’s table are not usually found in nature. The quartet that will finally fill the last row of the Periodic Table of Elements are laboratory-created super heavy elements.

Image source: Wikipedia