Two new heavy elements get official names

The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry says the latest heavy elements to be added to the periodic table will be named Flerovium and Livermorium. The organization officially approved the new names for elements 114 and 116 Thursday, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California reported. Flerovium (element 114, atomic symbol Fl) was chosen to honor the Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions, where the superheavy element was synthesized. The laboratory was named after Georgiy N. Flerov (1913-1990) a renowned physicist who discovered the spontaneous fission of uranium and was a pioneer in heavy-ion physics. Livermorium (element 116, atomic symbol Lv) was chosen to honor Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and the city of Livermore, Calif., whose researchers collaborated with Russian colleagues in the synthesis of superheavy elements, including element 116. Lawrencium -- element 103 -- was named for LLNL's founder E.O. Lawrence. "These names honor not only the individual contributions of scientists from these laboratories to the fields of nuclear science, heavy element research, and superheavy element research, but also the phenomenal cooperation and collaboration that has occurred between scientists in these two countries," Bill Goldstein, associate director of LLNL's Physical and Life Sciences Directorate, said.