Periodic table welcomes two new elements

IUPAC has officially approved the name flerovium, with symbol Fl, for the element of atomic number 114 and the name livermorium, with symbol Lv, for the element o f atomic number 116. Priority for the discovery of these elements was assigned, in accordance with the agreed criteria, to the collaboration between the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (Dubna, Russia) and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (Livermore, California, USA). The collaborating
team has proposed the names flerovium and livermorium which have now been formally approved by IUPAC.

Element 114, previously known as ununquadium, has been named flerovium (Fl), after the Russian institute's Flerovn Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions founder, which similarly is named in honour of Georgiy Flerov, a Russian physicist whose work and writings to Joseph Stalin led to the development of the USSR's atomic bomb project.

Element 116, which was temporarily named ununhexium, got its name as livermorium (Lv), after the national labs and the city of Livermore, California. Livermorium was first observed in 2000, when the scientists created it by mashing together calcium and curium.