I was astonished to find out that four new elements were recently added, and thus our periodic table of elements was completed. You can see the mention here on International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry's website.

The four new elements are called 'Nihonium, Moscovium, Tennessine, and Oganesson', and occupy the not-anymore outstanding positions of 113, 115, 117, and 118.

Naming system

It always seemed to me that the naming system of new elements had a sort of whimsical side to it.

There are very solid words rooted in the languages of antiquity, such as Aluminium, Phosphorus or Argon... but then there's Californium, Francium, or Berkelium. Simply, as time goes on, the sturdiness and seriousness seems make way for more relaxed titles.

After doing some research, I found the naming system of new elements. Basically, a new element has to be titled after one of the following:

• a mythological concept or character (including an astronomical object),
• a mineral or similar substance,
• a place, or geographical region,
• a property of the element, or
• a scientist

The general public doesn't get a say in naming new elements added to the periodic table, it's all decided in-house by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry which is tasked by keeping and maintaining the table.

Naming the elements

I guessed, and my guess was later on confirmed, that Nihonium was discovered in Japan. Nihon, literally meaning 'land of the rising sun' is one of the ways Japan can be called in Japanese. The element itself was discovered at the Riken Nishina Center for Accelerator-Based Science, so the name of the element indeed honors the country of its discovery.

Frankly speaking, I could already see that the same was done for Moscovium, which was obviously named after the city of Moscow.

The greater was my surprise when I found out it was actually discovered jointly by Nuclear Research, Dubna (Russia), the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (USA), the Vanderbilt University (USA) and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (USA).

I understood the situation better when I saw the institutes responsible for the discovery of Tennessine (because of contributions of local institutes to heavy metal research) were the same ones that discovered Moscovium.

It was clear that they'd reached a fair conclusion and divided the credit between both countries.

Oganesson, which was also a joint effort of Nuclear Research, Dubna (Russia) and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (USA), was chosen in honor of Yuri Oganessian, a Russian-American professor who led breakthrough element research.

Of course, I have to add a necessary caveat. The new elements added to the periodic table aren't about who discovered what. Each represents a major development in science that the communities realized by cooperating with one another; and I think the careful sharing of accomplishments between the countries represents just that.

In any case, once again, I could peak at the playful nature under all that seriousness.

How Oganesson made me sleep better

Even though the naming was fully done by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, the public reception of the news was strong.

For example, as is mentioned over here, there was a petition to name one of the new elements Lemmium after the recently passed-away rock star Lemmy Killmister. The reason was his contribution to heavy metal.

One way or another, I think the public reacted as much as it did because the four new elements added to the periodic table conveniently complete the well-known rectangle and relieve the OCD-like symptoms of some completionist chemists.

I don't know about you, but I certainly can relieve the burning curiosity I felt ever since my childhood-what will be the element in the bottom right corner?

Now I know; it's Oganesson.