Saturday, November 5, 2011

Unununium, I hardly knew you

Names for elements 110, 111, 112 have been officially approved.  I stumbled upon this article in the NY times today indicating that the general assembly of IUPAC (the international union for pure and applied chemistry) has officially approved the names for elements Ununnilium, Unununium, Ununbium.  These names are simply the latin names for 110, 111, and 112 respectively.  Once an element is discovered and is confirmed the element's temporary name is simply the latin name of its atomic number.  Then a (long) process begins to give the element an official name.  For example, elements 110, 111, 112 were all discovered in the ealry 1990's.  Their proposed names were accepted in the early 2000's, and on 1 Nov. 2011, those proposed names were officially approved.  I suppose you would like to know the official names for these elements?  Well, for that you must read the article (or look at a periodic table).  I will tell you, however, that they are named after the city in which they were discovered, and two famous scientists.  Their symbols are Ds, Rg, and Cn.

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