An international scientific organization announced Thursday proposed names for two new additions to the list of all the varieties of atoms in the universe.
The elements, which were discovered in 1998 and 2000, would be called flerovium and livermorium if suggestions by the International Union for Pure and Applied Chemistry are approved next May.
They are now known as ununquadium (element 114) and ununhexium (element 116). The numbers in the parantheses represent the number of protons in an atom of the element.
Flerovium (Fl) would be named for Georgy Flerov, a nuclear physicist who encouraged the development of the former Soviet Union's nuclear weapons program and founded Russia's Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, while livermorium (Lv) would be named for the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.
The elements, which have the atomic numbers 114 and 116, are among those placed on the lowest row of the Periodic Table of the Elements. That period, as rows on the Periodic Table are called, contains the trans-uranic elements. Many of those super-massive atoms are synthesized when scientists fuse nuclei of separate elements together with nuclear reactors or particle accelerators.
Element 114 is the result of the firing of calcium-48 ions into plutonium nuclei, while element 116 was generated when calcium-48 ions were fired into nuclei of a cesium isotope.
IUPAC confirmed the discovery of both elements in June.
About 80 atoms of ununquadium and about 30 atoms of ununhexium have been observed. Ununquadium has five isotopes and ununhexium has four.
The atoms of these elements decay quickly. The longest half-life observed in a ununquadium isotope is about 2.6 seconds, while the longest ununhexium half-life is about 60 milliseconds.
The research that led to the discovery of the two new elements was conducted at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
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