Elements 114 and 116 are Officially Recognized

In June the NY Times reported that IUPAC has officially recognized the existence of elements 114 and 116.  Their discovery was first reported in 2004 and 2006.  For now their names will be Ununquadium (symbol Uuq, Latin for 114) and Ununhexium (Symbol Uuh, Latin for 116).  Eventually they will receive official names and symbols.  These things take some time, so check back in about 5 years and I should have the official names.

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.

Imagine the hysteria. . .

. . .if this were to happen in Dec. of 2012.  It does not sound like the asteroid will be visible to the naked eye, but if you are interested in this sort of thing, it may be worth it to you to dress your eye up with the lens of an optical telescope - a basic one should do. I would love to hear from anyone who spots it.  In fact, I would love to hear from anyone.

The Nuclear Atom is 100 Years Old!

This week in chemistry we have been discussing the various models of the atom beginning with Dalton's Solid Sphere model.  Part of this story (a rather big part) is Ernest Rutherford's nuclear model, which was first announced in 1911.  In March, the New York Times ran this story to acknowledge the centennial.

The various models of the atom:

Nobel Prize in Chemistry Awarded

Israeli chemist, Daniel Schechtman, was awared the the 2011 Nobel Prize in chemistry for his discovery in 1982 of quasi-crystals.  Quasi-crystals are solids in which the atoms are arranged in regular patterns (that is the pattern can be described mathematically), but the pattern does not repeat itself.  So radical is this claim that when Schechtman originally announced his findings he was asked to leave his research team.  You can read the official press release here. 

Nobel Prize in Physics awarded

Today the Nobel committee awarded the prize in physics.  The prize was awarded to two American scientists and an Australian who separately concluded that the rate at which the universe is expanding is accelerating.  This is an enormously important discovery.  The big bang theory explains why the universe is expanding, but according to that theory the rate should be slowing down.  The observation that the universe's expansion is accelerating means there is something else at play.  This something else has been called dark energy.  You can read the official press release here.

Musica Universalis

That would be the music of the spheres.  In the old days it was thought that the movements of the heavenly spheres (sun, moon, stars etc.) generated a form of music through their harmonic and proportional movements.  This was not thought to be a music that you could hear, but more of a mathematical concept (and for Aristotle even religious to the extent that the motion was sustained by the Prime Mover).  Wikipedia has an intertesting article on this topic here.  I bring it up at all because two students of mine came across this recent news.  It turns out that Saturn does produce its own "music", and thanks to modern science we can now hear it.  It is a phenomenal and almost haunting series of sounds.  Give it a listen if you have a chance.

Thanks to Alyssa Gullotto and Shawn Hoose for passing the link along.