Naming
Until the 1960s ununoctium was known as eka-emanation (emanation is the old name for radon). In 1979 the IUPAC published recommendations according to which the element was to be called ununoctium, a systematic element name, as a placeholder until the discovery of the element is confirmed and the IUPAC decides on a name.
Before the retraction in 2002, the researchers from Berkeley had intended to name the element ghiorsium (Gh), after Albert Ghiorso (a leading member of the research team).
The Russian discoverers reported their synthesis in 2006. In 2007, the head of the Russian institute stated the team were considering two names for the new element: flyorium in honor of Georgy Flyorov, the founder of the research laboratory in Dubna; and moskovium, in recognition of the Moskovskaya Oblast where Dubna is located. He also stated that although the element was discovered as an American collaboration, who provided the californium target, the element should rightly be named in honor of Russia since the Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions at JINR was the only facility in the world which could achieve this result. These names were later proposed for element 114 (flerovium) and element 116 (moscovium). However, the final name proposed for element 116 was instead livermorium.
No name has yet been officially suggested for the element. According to current guidelines from IUPAC, the ultimate name for all new elements should end in "-ium", which means the name for ununoctium may end in "-ium", not "-on", even if ununoctium turns out to be a noble gas, which traditionally have names ending in "-on" (with the exception of helium, which was not known to be a noble gas when it was discovered).
Read more about this topic: Ununoctium
Famous quotes containing the word naming:
“The night is itself sleep
And what goes on in it, the naming of the wind,
Our notes to each other, always repeated, always the same.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“See, see where Christ’s blood streams in the firmament!
One drop would save my soul—half a drop! ah, my Christ!—
Ah, rend not my heart for naming of my Christ!—
Yet will I call on him!—O, spare me, Lucifer!—
Where is it now? ‘T is gone; and see where God
Stretcheth out his arm, and bends his ireful brows!—
Mountains and hills, come, come and fall on me,
And hide me from the heavy wrath of God!”
—Christopher Marlowe (1564–1593)
“Husband,
who am I to reject the naming of foods
in a time of famine?”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)