Elemental My Dear Chemist

This week saw the news that the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) and International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) have decided that two new elements can be added to the periodic table. This follows a three year review of the elements to ensure that they fulfil the official criteria which has seen three other potential new elements fall by the wayside. The new elements sit at atomic number 114 and 116 on the period table, and are as yet not officially named, but are going by the snazzy unofficial names of ununquadium and ununhexium. However, don’t expect to see these new elements sitting on the shelf of your chemical store any time soon, not only are they highly radioactive, but they only exist for under a second before decaying.