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Scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California, announced today that they have for the first time used a beam of titanium to make a known superheavy element, livermorium — element 116. After upgrading the lab’s equipment, the team plans to use similar techniques to try to produce element 120. The heaviest element that has been made so far is oganesson, element 118, which was first synthesized in 2002.

It's time to update your copy of the periodic table. Four new elements discovered in recent years have now been named, pending final approval by the international group of scientists in charge of the table. The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry has announced these proposed names: Nihonium and symbol Nh, for the element 113 Moscovium and symbol Mc, for the element 115 Tennessine and symbol Ts, for the element 117 Oganesson and symbol Og, for the element 118 The new superheavy, radioactive elements were actually added to the periodic table late last year and given these temporary and...

Nihonium, named after Japan (Nippon is a Japanese word for Japan), with an atomic number of 113. Its symbol is Nh. Moscovium (Mc), element 115, named after the Russian capital city. Tennessine (Ts), 117, named after — you guessed it — the state of Tennessee. ("Tennessine is in recognition of the contribution of the Tennessee region, including Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Vanderbilt University, and the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, to superheavy element research," the IUPAC states.) And finally, 118 is oganesson (Og), which bears the name of Russian physicist Yuri Oganessian, who led several elemental discoveries. Nature reports this...