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Godzillium vs. Trumpium: Some Suggestions to Add to the Periodic Table
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An earlier periodic table of the elements.CreditSovfoto, via Getty Images
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What would you name a new element on the periodic table? That’s a question that groups of scientists from Japan, the U.S. and Russia will have to decide as they replace the current identifiers of four elements — 113, 115, 117 and 118 — with something a little more evocative.
With the ushering in of these four superheavy elements, and the approval of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, the Periodic Table’s seventh row will be complete.
We recently solicited reader suggestions. Many proposed naming them after prominent scientists such as Rosalind Franklin, Ada Lovelace, Nikola Tesla and Carl Sagan or after chemistry professors that they admired in college and high school.
Others tapped into popular culture, picking “adamantium” after the material, in Marvel lore, that makes Wolverine’s indestructible claws, and “unobtanium,” the coveted element from the movie Avatar. Donald Trump is shaking up this contest, too — readers suggested “trumpium,” “trumpillium,” “trumpissum” and “AnyoneButTrumpium.”
Here are some other standouts:
Rikenium
The most popular suggestion we received was to name element 113 after Riken institute in Japan. The team of scientists from the institute were the first researchers in Asia to discover an element and gain the right to name it. But “Rikenium” does not follow the rules set out by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, which ultimately must approve the winning names (Riken is an institute, not a place, and therefore would most likely be disqualified as a contender).
Ghiorsonium
David Bernklau, a reader from Brooklyn, suggested naming one of the new elements after Albert Ghiorso, who codiscovered an astonishing 12 elements, a record. Over the course of 30 years, his inventions contributed to the discovery of americium, curium, berkelium, californium, einsteinium, fermium, mendelevium, nobelium, lawrencium, rutherfordium, dubnium and seaborgium. Seaborgium was named after his colleague Glenn Seaborg, a nuclear scientist.
“In a nutshell, it is unbelievable that an element has yet to be named after him!” said Mr. Bernklau.
Godzillium
Several people suggested naming one of the new elements after the 300-foot-tall mutant lizard.
“Godzillium,” Susan Sampson wrote, “is mythical, Japanese, and worthy of an element that is unnatural, radioactive and rapidly self-destructive.”
Nipponium
This popular suggestion comes from a Japanese word for Japan, “Nippon.” This name actually isn’t a newcomer to the periodic table. In 1908, Japanese chemist Masataka Ogawa ascribed nipponium, with the symbol Np, to what he thought was element 43.
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It appeared in periodic tables in Britain, according to the book “The Lost Elements.” But other scientists were unable to isolate the element. Later analysis of Dr. Ogawa’s samples in 1930 showed that Dr. Ogawa hadactually found element 75, which is just one row directly below element 43. Unfortunately by the time researchers realized the mistake it was too late: element 75 had already been named rhenium in 1925. Dr. Ogawa died a few weeks after learning the fate of nipponium.
Element 43 was later found and named technetium in 1937 and the symbol “Np” was used to describe neptunium in 1940.
Sisyphisium
Lisa DeBenedittis said she would bestow the name sisyphisium on element 118 because it is the heaviest synthetic element. Her logic:
“The credit for discovering element 118 — the heaviest ever created — has been assigned to the Dubna and Lawrence Livermore teams. The element has a checkered history: a 1999 claim to have made it was retracted two years later amid accusations that data had been falsified.”
“Therefore, I look to two attributes: its heaviness and its second appearance, as noteworthy. Like the heavy boulder that Sisyphus was condemned to push up a mountain, only to watch it roll down, for eternity, this name evokes 118’s emblematic characteristics.”
Narcissium
Holly Triebe also decided to borrow a name from Greek mythology for her suggested name. She went with “narcissium” after the handsome hunter, Narcissus, who upon looking into a pool of water, fell deeply in love with his reflection and stared at it until he died.
“This word suits any of the newfound elements because they are all man-made elements, and scientists have begun to play God in this aspect. They decide what is created and what they believe is necessary,” she said. “It is a form of self-importance because the elements present on Earth are no longer good enough.”
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