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Science

Two Elements Added To Periodic Table 138

Posted by CmdrTaco from the still-waiting-for-slashdottium dept.
smitty777 writes "Two new elements have been added to the periodic table of the elements. Elements 114 and 116 are the weightiest known, with atomic weights of 289 and 292 respectively. The discoverers are proposing flerovium and moscovium as names for these two new discoveries. There are also arguments being made to add in three more as well: 113, 115 and 118." We've noted element 114 in the past, but this is more official.
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Two Elements Added To Periodic Table More

Two Elements Added To Periodic Table

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  • Weightiest (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    WTF is this?
    whats wrong with heaviest

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by axl917 ( 1542205 )

      WTF is this?
      whats wrong with heaviest

      How do you spell potato, Mr. Quayle?

    • Stupid word. Especially since we're probably talking about mass anyway.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward
        Hint: Atomic weight
        • Hint: Dictionary

          • Re: (Score:3)

            by EdIII ( 1114411 )

            Hint: These arguments might be why we don't get laid that much.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by smelch ( 1988698 )
              Hint: No, its all aspects of our personalities.
              • And our average weightiness.

              • Re: (Score:2)

                by EdIII ( 1114411 )

                Wow. I thought the reply from weaselgrease was funny already, but your signature is hilarious.

                I can't understand it.

                It's like you want a wizardly (sorcerers don't need words) way to influence somebodies butthole.

                I have this image of you in a basement with a cat performing "controlled studies" like a Wizard would do in some School of Magic.

                Except, I don't think the butthole spell will be as popular as you think.

                In any case, you are correct. It *IS* all aspects of our personalities. The fact you want to to

                • Re: (Score:2)

                  by smelch ( 1988698 )

                  We should go to a bar together and see who gets laid first arguing about something.

                  Why do I get the feeling you are going to force a tie?

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Knowledge embiggens even the smallest man

    • Re:Weightiest (Score:4, Informative)

      by Lord Jester ( 88423 ) <jeff AT lordjester DOT com> on Monday June 06, 2011 @01:20PM (#36352466) Homepage

      Weightiest is a real word and the use is valid.

      http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/weightiest [merriam-webster.com] (2b)

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AP31R0N ( 723649 )

        Meh. Most dictionaries are written by a useless class of people called descriptivists who slavishly record every (mis)use of a word. If you used Humperdink like this: "The morning was Humperdink", they'd create an entry for it, no matter how wrong or stupid it is. Going to a dictionary for proof of a word's meaning or validity is like citing Wikipedia as a source.

        This is why the ignorant and lazy misuse words like decimate and literally. Stupid person uses it incorrectly... stupid listener repeats it... s

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by aix tom ( 902140 )

      The "heavy" is probably all worn out from the old "what's heavier, a ton of flerovium or a ton of moscovium?" joke and needed a day off.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by chill ( 34294 )

        It is more fun if you throw gold in the mixture. What is heavier, a ton of gold or a ton of ?

        Gold is measured in Troy ounces, where 1 Troy Oz = 1.097 avoirdupois ounce. Thus, the gold is heavier.

        • Re:Weightiest (Score:5, Funny)

          by X0563511 ( 793323 ) on Monday June 06, 2011 @02:33PM (#36353452) Homepage Journal

          That only works if you (for some reason) insist on using the currency-based measure for gold, but not on all the other items.

          That's retarded. One of the first things you do is ensure your units are consistent.

          • "That's retarded. One of the first things you do is ensure your units are consistent."

            Yeah, that worked out real well for that Mars probe.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by Anonymous Coward

          Bzzzt! There are 12 Troy ounces per Troy pound and 16 Avoirdupois ounces per Avoirdupois pound so a ton of anything measured in Avoirdupois is heavier than a ton of gold measure in Troy units.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by smelch ( 1988698 )
            Shit! This conversation is damned compelling. I came in here expecting to be bored about properties of new elements, I was not - I repeat not - ready to witness this epic battle of which-unit-is-the-weightiest.
      • Nah - it's back to Doc Brown being concerned over the future 80s because of how often Marty McFly talked about something being "heavy."
    • Because we all know, the Heaviest element is "Jumbonium" (http://theinfosphere.org/Jumbonium)

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Surt ( 22457 )

        But .... as pictured Jumbonium is actually light enough to float. It's clearly the largest (visible to the naked eye), but that doesn't make it the heaviest. </nerd>

  • Element 115 (Score:4, Informative)

    by jd ( 1658 ) <imipak@ y a hoo.com> on Monday June 06, 2011 @01:06PM (#36352248) Homepage Journal

    Should be called Lazarium. After all, it's safe to say nobody has an earlier claim of discovery. :) (Hey, I said nothing about any actual discovery, just a claim of one.)

  • How about (Score:4, Funny)

    by ThatsNotPudding ( 1045640 ) on Monday June 06, 2011 @01:08PM (#36352286)
    Farnsworthium?
    "Good news, everyone!"

  • I'll be most disappointed if.... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Brannoncyll ( 894648 ) on Monday June 06, 2011 @01:10PM (#36352306)
    element 115 is not given the name Elerium, in honour of the fictional element used to power the spacecraft in the XCOM series. Ununpentium is dull and doesn't really roll off the tongue!

    • But technically isn't "Elerium-115" mean "Elerium with atomic mass of 115" ? Like "U-235" ?

      • That would be the usual convention, yes. However the online UFOpaedia wiki site [ufopaedia.org] (and my vague recollections) suggest that it was also referred to as element 115 in the game. That being said, the wikipedia discussion on ununpentium [wikipedia.org] argues that Elerium-115 should be interpreted as the Elerium isotope of mass 115 rather than element 115, prompting this pop-culture reference's removal from the article.

    • ununpentium
      Does Intel have nothing not to do with this one? (double negative there).

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      element 115 is not given the name Elerium, in honour of the fictional element used to power the spacecraft in the XCOM series. Ununpentium is dull and doesn't really roll off the tongue!

      Are you fucking retarded?

    • What about Starktonium? One has to be this, right?

  • What happened to that un uh um oo ee oo ah ah standardized naming system?

    Did they finally realize it sucked the passion and romance right out of the periodic table?

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by vlm ( 69642 )

      passion and romance ... periodic table

      That sounds like the plot of a xkcd comic...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by blueg3 ( 192743 )

      Those are used until a name is decided on.

    • I believe that naming system was used to fill in spots that either haven't been discovered/created, or that have been discovered but not verified/accepted. Once the corresponding element gets "voted onto the island", they give it an official name.

      Aikon-

    • Re:Huh (Score:5, Funny)

      by RoverDaddy ( 869116 ) on Monday June 06, 2011 @02:33PM (#36353454) Homepage

      What happened to that un uh um oo ee oo ah ah standardized naming system?

      They gave up when they realized it would have to be extended to include ting tang walla walla bing bang.

    • WP sez [wikipedia.org]:

      "A systematic element name is the temporary name and symbol assigned to newly synthesized and not yet synthesized chemical elements. In chemistry, a transuranic element receives a permanent name and symbol only after its synthesis has been confirmed."

  • How close are we to the island of stability? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by JoshuaZ ( 1134087 ) on Monday June 06, 2011 @01:18PM (#36352440) Homepage
    The real issue isn't these elements which are unstable and not that interesting. The real question is whether the island of stability exists and how close we are to it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_of_stability [wikipedia.org] If current theories are correct then there may be a section of elements with atomic numbers near 120 that are much more stable. They might even be stable enough to be used for practical purposes if we can synthesize them on a large scale. Depending on the exact model, they might have half-lives as short as a few seconds (which for elements in this range is comparatively large but not large enough to use for any practical purposes) or it might be as much as 100,000 years (there are more optimistic estimates but they seem extremely unlikely). For comparison, tritium has a half-life of about 12 years and is used in a lot of practical applications. So, if the island exists and we find good ways to synthesize these elements, then we might get some very interesting chemistry.

    • and even more importantly, how does this magic element relate to mining operations on pandora, and is it the stuff that makes 10 foot tall blue chicks hot?

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by mysidia ( 191772 ) *

      I'm still waiting on a high numbered inexpensively-manufactured element that has a short half life and quickly decays into non-radioactive gold and silver, chemically, atomically indistinguishable from the stuff we mine :-)

    • Or find out the hard way why our neighboring stars aren't teeming with advanced civilizations.
      "Congrats! We just created element 120 and it appears stable! Yay! What do you mean the sensors aren't working anymore? Ok who's messing with the clock and making the hands run backwards? How'd my underwear get on my head and why did Fred just turn into a polar bear?"

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Squiffy ( 242681 )

      We're missing the island of stability and we don't know how to hit it yet. As the article you link states, "The manufacturing of nuclei in the island of stability proves to be very difficult, because the nuclei available as starting materials do not deliver the necessary sum of neutrons."

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tokul ( 682258 )

      if the island exists and we find good ways to synthesize these elements, then we might get some very interesting chemistry.

      I am not atom physicist, but if island of stability exists, then we should be able to find those elements without nuclear synthesis. Those elements would exist as they would be created the usual way by mother universe.

      If you have unstable composite with over 250 parts, do you really expect that composite of 300-400 parts will be rock solid.

      • Larger elements almost certainly existed in the past, but there's nothing bigger than Bi that's stable on astronomical time scales (and even Bi has recently been discovered to be slightly radioactive, albeit with a very long half-life), so any heavy elements that were created in normal astronomical events have long-since decayed into lighter elements -- when you get to 200+ nucleons "stable" is a relative term.

      • Stability is relative. If we could create a very heavy element with a half-life of 10 years then that would be fascinating (and perhaps very useful)- but you won't find much of it floating around in space; all elements created "naturally" are created in the fusion reactions of stars, generally dispersed by supernova; anything created in most known supernovae would be gone long before it reaches us. And that's even assuming the fusion reactions in stars would be capable of producing such a very heavy element

  • Elerium 115 (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Oh, Elerium 115 is comiiiing! Now we need to get some Alien Alloys...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by x6060 ( 672364 )
      I loved X-COM as a kid! All I want is a heavy plasma rifle.... But seriously, I think youre the only other person on earth I have run into that knows about this game.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by xkuehn ( 2202854 )

        I think youre the only other person on earth I have run into that knows about this game.

        Really? My friends and I used to love it.

        If you don't know about it, you might want to check out UFO:AI (ufoai.ninex.info, or find it on sourceforge). It's very playable but gets boring late in the game. That should improve as the game matures.

      • You need more friends ;) ... I thought everyone played (or at least knew) about X-COM.

      • In the UK it was called UFO: Enemy Unknown, and I must have racked up 200 hours on that game. Also, I think you would be surprised about how popular the game is; certainly there are at least three full discussions on this Slashdot article discussing elerium-115 (including one started by yours truly), and as one of the other commenters have pointed out, there are several active open source projects aiming to recreate it's splendour (this article [wikipedia.org] has a list of the major projects).

  • Obviously (Score:3)

    by nschubach ( 922175 ) on Monday June 06, 2011 @01:27PM (#36352602) Journal

    “Element 114 obviously isn’t a very catchy name, especially in a sea of molybdenums and seaborgiums. They have temporary titles — ununquadium and ununhexium — but final names are yet to been decided.

    Obviously, the elements must roll off the tongue as well as molybdenum.

    • > Obviously, the elements must roll off the tongue as well as molybdenum.

      The disulfide is pretty slippery but I wouldn't put it on my tongue.

    • I knew a guy who had difficulty pronouncing a number of words correctly. Molybdenum was one of them. He invariably pronounced it 'mollybendum'. Funny, but a bit sad at the same time.

  • better names (Score:4, Informative)

    by circletimessquare ( 444983 ) <circletimessquar ... m minus language> on Monday June 06, 2011 @01:28PM (#36352616) Homepage Journal

    almost obligatory whenever these kinds of stories pop up on slashdot:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fictional_elements,_materials,_isotopes_and_atomic_particles [wikipedia.org]

    • That is one of the most hilarious Wikipedia pages I've ever seen. Another that comes to mind is the list of films considered the worst [wikipedia.org]. Lists seem to be a good holdout for ridiculous content.
  • Flerovium? I vote a rename in favor of Wonderflonium.

  • Moscovium, placenames (Score:3)

    by aBaldrich ( 1692238 ) on Monday June 06, 2011 @01:45PM (#36352844)

    This moscovium made me think of other elements named for places. Europium [wikipedia.org] and Americium for continents. Lutetium [wikipedia.org] for Paris, Californium [wikipedia.org] for California. Dubnium [wikipedia.org] for Dubna, a city in Russia. Francium [wikipedia.org] and Gallium [wikipedia.org] for France, Germanium [wikipedia.org] for Germany, Polonium [wikipedia.org] for Poland), Hafnium [wikipedia.org] for Copenhagen, Holmium [wikipedia.org] for Stockholm (these last 2 from their Latin names). Then Hassium [wikipedia.org] for Hesse (Germany), Rhenium [wikipedia.org] for Eastern France (jk :D), Ruthenium [wikipedia.org] for the old region in Ukraine-Russia, Strontium [wikipedia.org] for a village in Scotland, Berkelium [wikipedia.org] for Berkeley, and Thulium [wikipedia.org] for a mythical island in the north Pole.

    A special mention to the lucky sweddish village of Ytterby [wikipedia.org] that has four elements named in its honor: Yttrium [wikipedia.org], Ytterbium [wikipedia.org], Erbium [wikipedia.org], and Terbium [wikipedia.org].

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gr8dude ( 832945 )

      Very interesting comment, thank you for compiling all the info in one place for us.

  • I hope they had at least the courtesy to add the new elements at the bottom, so old tables can be updated more easily.
  • They are the names of the horses Paul Revere used in his famous "Threaten the British" tour...

  • elements name YOU!

  • Elerium (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    It should have been called Elerium.

  • how about fatassium and heavyasshitium. No, I am not serious but hey it's Monday.

  • Flavorflavium (Score:3)

    by Lawrence_Bird ( 67278 ) on Monday June 06, 2011 @03:30PM (#36354298) Homepage
    was how I read that very quickly.... I'm sure he could come up with a rhyme for it too
  • According to my Oscar Meyer periodic table of elements, element 120 is called Baloneyium. -- The Simpsons

  • Wake me up when they find a new element with a *lower* atomic number than the ones we are accustomed to now. Maybe one with zero protons called Hallucinatium (Ha!).

  • 'Nuff said.

  • It's really about time an element was named Daltonium. It was John Dalton who came up with the original ideas that led to correct theories about the structure of the atom and what an element was, yet his name is not honoured, and is passed over again and again for silly names. It's almost as if people have forgotten him....

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by smithmc ( 451373 ) *

      It's really about time an element was named Daltonium. It was John Dalton who came up with the original ideas that led to correct theories about the structure of the atom and what an element was, yet his name is not honoured, and is passed over again and again for silly names. It's almost as if people have forgotten him....

      Well, the unit of atomic mass [wikipedia.org] is named after him...

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