The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) announced the addition of four new elements to the periodic table, on Jan. 4, 2016. The elements—with atomic numbers 113, 115, 117, and 118—complete the seventh row of the periodic table. Researchers in Russia, Japan, and the United States made the discoveries.
Though the new elements have been identified for several years, they were only recently confirmed to fit the properties of the respective elements, as a result of IUPAC’s long process for verifying and corroborating such discoveries.
Since heavier elements are very radioactive, unstable, and normally not found in nature, scientists must work to synthesize them in labs and prove their existence. Larger, heavier atoms have a weak nuclear force that causes the atoms to decay into more stable elements with fewer atoms.
The process begins when particle accelerators fire beams of lighter nuclei at samples of heavier target nuclei until they fuse. When the element is created by fusion, it only takes a thousandth of a second before it decays and disappears. The discovery of new elements can provide help with learning about the forces that hold atoms together.
Petitions to name the elements have already started circulating, including one to name an element after Motorhead frontman, Lemmy Kilmister. The proposed name of the element, lemmium, would pay tribute to the recently deceased heavy metal band’s singer.
The names of the elements were suggested by their discoverers. Until they are given permanent names, the elements will be known by temporary working names, like ununtrium and ununseptium.