

Element 112 is Named Copernicium (Cn) - splat
http://www.iupac.org/web/nt/2010-02-20_112_Copernicium

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ugh
Things only Wikipedia can teach you and which you would otherwise never learn
because the topic isn’t otherwise interesting enough for you to buy any books:

Elements 108 to 112 were created by the German Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion
Research between 1982 and 1996 and named (in order Hassium, Meitnerium,
Darmstadtium, Roentgenium and Copernicium) between 1997 and now.

The Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research seems to have gotten lazy after
that because the next five elements (113 to 116 and 118) were created by the
Russian Joint Institute for Nuclear Research between 2000 and 2006. They are
all not yet named.

I guess we gonna get a few elements named after Russian scientists, cities or
states next. And I’m pretty astonished that it can seemingly take 14 years to
name a freaking element. Copernicium seems an innocent enough name.

~~~
mechanical_fish
_it can seemingly take 14 years to name a freaking element_

Naming it is easy. Making the name _stick_ is hard.

I'm sure it takes time to make sure that (a) the result is real; (b) it is
correctly attributed.

And nobody wants to have to take an element back. That would create a small-
scale version of the furor that ensured when the astronomers had to take one
of the solar system's planets back.

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sown
What a birthday present!

