Boffinry summit names 3 new elements

Boffinry chiefs meeting in London are chuffed to announce the official naming of three new elements on the periodic table.

Atoms with 110, 111 and 112 protons in their nuclei will henceforth be known as darmstadtium (Ds), roentgenium (Rg) and copernicium (Cn) respectively.

The names were suggested by the Joint Working Party on the Discovery of Elements, which is a joint body of International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) and the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUAPC). They were formally approved by IUPAP's General Assembly.

“The naming of these elements has been agreed in consultation with physicists around the world and we’re delighted to see them now being introduced to the periodic table," gushed Dr Robert Kirby-Harris, IUPAP secretary-general.

Darmstadtium is so named after the German town near the lab in which it was first discovered. Roentgenium and Copernicium honour the eminent scientists Wilhelm Röntgen and Nicolaus Copernicus. The elements were previously given the temporary names ununnilium, unununium and ununbium in accordance with tradition.

The IUPAP assembly has been meeting all week here in London. It has also announced the inauguration of its first female president, Professor Cecilia Jarlskog from the Division of Mathematical Physics at Lund University in Sweden. ®