Japan's Riken Likely to Name Element 113

Matters of atoms and elements are often too much for laymen to follow, but this piece of news is intriguing enough for greenhorns: Japanese atomic scientists found a new element and have won the right to name it - simple as that.

The new element "113" is likely to be named "Japonium" next January. The feat marks an achievement that will remain earmarked in the history of science.

Elements heavier than 92 uranium do not exist in nature and are artificially.synthesized. Both the Japanese team under Riken or the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research  (IPCR)  and the Dubna collaboration involving Russian and American scientists claimed to have discovered element 113 over a decade. 

Both the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) and the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) had a joint working group set up to examine the argument. It is reported that the working group has concluded to approve Riken as the discoverer of element 113 and informed the chemistry side accordingly. The physics side in agreement, the conclusion will be final.

In 2004, Riken under Kosuke Morita, currently professor to Kyushu University, employed an accelerator to smash 30 zinc into a piece of 83 bismuth, and when the zinc and bismuth atoms fused they produced an atom with 113 protons. 

Meanwhile, the Dubna collaboration of Russian and American scientists claimed to have produced 113 by some other means after February, 2004, slightly earlier and more in number than Riken, but not enough data to substantiate their findings. The Russo-American collaboration's claim for the discovery of 115, 117, 118 is currently being studied.

Riken used a linear accelerator to speed up zinc atom to 10% of light speed and smashed into bismuth atom. The mass number of protons and neutrons put together is 278 and 5 times heavier than iron - extremely unstable and lifespan one-thousandth of a second. No chemical characteristics are yet known.