New Elements Emerge, Seventh Row of Periodic Table is Complete

For the first time since 2011, four new elements will be incorporated to the existing 114 elements within the periodic table. On December 30th, 2015, the elements with the atomic numbers of 113, 115, 117, and 118 were officially recognized by the IUPAC, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry. With the addition of these elements, the previously incomplete seventh row of the periodic table is now finally complete. In an interview with CNN, president Jan Reedijk stated, “IUPAC has now initiated the process of formalizing names and symbols for these elements temporarily named as ununtrium, (Uut or element 113), ununpentium (Uup, element 115), ununseptium (Uus, element 117), and ununoctium (Uuo, element 118)” (CNN). Three of these elements, elements 115, 117, and 118, had been found respectively by researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, and the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna. Element 113, however, had been found overseas by the RIKEN group, stationed in Japan. The researchers at the previously stated establishments will now have to face the daunting task of having to decide permanents names for the elements.