New periodic table names

Four elements from the lower right-hand corner of the periodic table will have new names.

A document outlining the proposals was drafted by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, chemistry's governing body.

Rules dictate that a new element may be named after a) a mythological concept or character (including an astronomical object), b) a mineral or similar substance, c) a place or geographical region, d) a property of the element, or (e) a scientist.

Element 113 will be called nihonium (Nh) – Nihon is the Japanese word for Japan and translates as the land of the rising sun; element 115 will be moscovium (Mv); element 117 will be tennessine (Ts); and element 118 will be oganesson (Og), named after Russian nuclear physicist, Yuri Oganessian.