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Proposing Element Names

February 13, 2012 | A version of this story appeared in Volume 90, Issue 7

On Feb. 19, 2010, the International Union of Pure & Applied Chemistry officially accepted and approved the name and symbol for element 112 as copernicium (Cn). It is now in search of the same for the recently discovered elements 114 and 116. The proposed names and symbols are flerovium (Fl) for element 114 and livermorium (Lv) for element 116. With all due respect to Georgi N. Flerov, founder of the Dubna Research Institute, and to the city of Livermore, Calif., consideration should be given, as it was to Copernicus, to scientists who have made “towering” contributions to science, particularly in chemistry.

Using the five-month comment period offered by IUPAC (until June 2012), the American Chemical Society, with the participation of its members, should propose alternatives for the aforementioned namings. For example, contributions of the giants of chemistry such as Gilbert N. Lewis, Linus C. Pauling, and so on, are universally recognized. For this reason, their names could be enshrined in the periodic table as lewisdium (Lw) and paulinium (Pl) for elements 114 and 116, respectively.

By Luis Vargas
Bayside, N.Y.

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