Naming of elements which are discovered in accelerators is a controversial subject. The heaviest 19 elements are not found in nature and are created by physicists in their laboratories. The controversies surrounding these could be nearer resolution, now that an international commission has prepared a report for naming elements 104 to 109 (atomic number, that is, the number of electrons in the atom of the element). The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry will meet in August this year and debate the report of the Commission. Hopefully, we will soon have a standardised list of elements then ( Science , Vol 275, No 5306).
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