These Four New Elements Will Complete The Last Row Of The Periodic Table

The discovery of four new elements completed the seventh and last row of the periodic table.

According to The Guardian, the four elements do not yet have names, so they are currently known by their temporary names or atomic numbers: 113, 115, 117 and 118.

They were verified by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry on December 30, 2015 and are the first elements to be added to the periodic table since 2011.

Scientists at the RIKEN institute in Japan discovered 113, and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California worked with the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee to discover elements 115, 117 and 118.

The teams will take the next few months to decide on the names and two-letter abbreviations for their findings.

The names could be inspired by people, places, minerals or even concepts derived from myths, Mashable reports.

Ryōji Noyori, former RIKEN president and Nobel laureate in chemistry, said,

To scientists, this is of greater value than an Olympic gold medal.

All of the elements were synthetic and classified as superheavy due to their high atomic numbers, which represent the amounts of protons in the elements' nuclei.

The elements exist for less than a second before they decay and turn into other elements.

Until their new, official names are announced, the elements will retain their temporary names and symbols. Element 113 is ununtrium (Uut), 115 is ununpentium (Uup), 117 is ununseptium (Uus) and 118 is ununoctium (Uuo).

Citations: Periodic table's seventh row finally filled as four new elements are added (The Guardian), Attention nerds: The periodic table is getting four new elements (Mashable)