Theoretical Element 115 Exists, Study Confirms
The Periodic Table of the Elements, by electronic structure Alison Haigh Researchers confirm the existence of this synthetic element in a new accelerator study. Will it be enough to give ununpentium official recognition and a new name? At the bottom right corner of the periodic table of elements, there are a handful of boxes that illustrators often color gray. The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry leaves out those boxes altogether, so that their periodic table looks a bit gap-toothed. The boxes are for elements that the IUPAC hasn't yet confirmed actually exist. Now, a new set of experiments backs up the discovery of one of those elements. An international team of physicists has synthesized an element with 115 protons in the GSI accelerator in Germany. This isn't the first time a research group has synthesized the element, which has the temporary name of ununpentium (Latin for one-one-five, plus "-ium.")...