The four new elements that were discovered a couple of years ago, and that neatly completed the 7th row of the periodic table, have finally been officially named.
Temporarily named for their atomic numbers - Ununtrium (113), Ununpentium (115), Ununseptium (117), and Ununoctium (118) - the four elements have now been named, following tradition, after the person or region of their discovery:
- 113: Nihonium (Nh), after the Japanese word for Japan
- 115: Moscovium (Mc), after Moscow, the capital of Russia
- 117: Tennessine (Ts), after the American state of Tennessee
- 118: Oganesson (Og), after Russian scientist Yuri Oganessian
The new elements are all but useless - they are radioactive, with a half life of just fractions of a second - but scientists are hard at work searching for even heavier new elements, which might actually be useful in some way.
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