• Question: Have their been any newly discovered elements, if so, what are they called

    Asked by Nova to Christie, Dan, David, Dawn, Sian on 14 Jun 2016. This question was also asked by tom.
    • Photo: Christie Waddington

      Christie Waddington answered on 14 Jun 2016:

      Yes! At the beginning of this year there were 4 new elements discovered, the first since 2011. These are elements with atomic numbers 113 (discovered in Japan), 115, 117 and 118 (discovered in Russia and USA).
      113 = nihonium, Nh.
      115 = moscovium, Mc.
      117 = tennessine, Ts.
      118 = oganesson, Og.

    • Photo: Dawn Lau

      Dawn Lau answered on 14 Jun 2016:

      Christie’s answer is spot on, but just to add that these names have yet to be confirmed by the organisation that is responsible for approving element names. These names are now under public review for 5 months!

    • Photo: Sian Thomas

      Sian Thomas answered on 20 Jun 2016:

      It is not only new elements – some of the ones we have known about for longest are found in new forms too. While I was doing my A Levels (I know that is quite a long time ago), buckminsterfullerene was discovered – a new form of carbon – the others being graphite and diamond at the time. I remember my chemistry teacher being very excited when this was on the news and we spent a whole lesson speculating what it meant!

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