Japanese scientists name atomic element 113 ‘nihonium’

[yuiyoshida]

Japanese scientists who discovered the atomic element 113 named it “nihonium” Wednesday evening.

The team of researchers at Riken institute coined the name from “Nihon,” meaning Japan in Japanese, and gave the superheavy synthetic element the atomic symbol “Nh.”

The team, led by Kyushu University professor Kosuke Morita, secured the naming rights in December after creating the element three times in 2004, 2005 and 2012.

While a U.S.-Russian team claimed to have discovered the element earlier than the Riken team, a joint working group set up by the International Union of Pure Applied Chemistry and the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics concluded the Riken team had discovered it.

Morita proposed the name to the IUPAC in March for review. After the announcement Wednesday evening, the organization is expected to invite public comments on the name before formally deciding around the end of the year.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/06/08/national/science-health/japanese-scientists-plan-name-atomic-element-113-nihonium/

[yourpaljoey]

1. “Nihon” means Japan in Japanese

I thought the Japanese pronounced that as "Nippon."
How did Americans come to rename it Japan?

[yuiyoshida]

2. Nippon is a name used in the official capacity

or in the country's events. Ask an average Japanese where they were born they will tell you:"Nihon de Unmaremashita." OR where they live... "Nihon sunde imasu".

As for the name Japan...

Marco Polo never visited Japan, only China, but in a book he mentions the island of Chipangu. Some people say that this is the origin of "Japan". Others claim that "Japan" came from Malaysian 'Jih-pun' or something similar, which came from a southern Chinese dialect reading of Nippon.

Others say that when Marco Polo visited China, Chinese pronunciation was close enough to modern Mandarin that the character for "day/sun" (日 ) was a retroflex fricative, something like the "Z" in "Zsa Zsa Gabor", or "j" and "r" pronounced simultaneously and held for a syllable. The character for "origin/root/book/scroll" (本 ) was read something like "pun" (as in modern Mandarin, though it sounds more like the English word "bun" to English speakers), so Marco Polo did the best he could in Italian with what sounded to him like "jrjrrrpun". The weakest part of this account is the attribution to Marco Polo; perhaps it was somebody who came along later?

[yourpaljoey]

4. That made me invent this:

에프엑스_첫 사랑니
Japanese Bun

[yuiyoshida]

5. Is that Korean?

epeuegseu_cheos salangni

I don't get it.

[yourpaljoey]

6. rum pum pum pum

I thought that was Japanese.
O brubber... back to the drawing board

[yuiyoshida]

8. maybe it be best to learn Japanese before

playing around with it.

Like a guy I met who had horrible Japanese, I asked him where he learned it. He said.."Watching Anime"..I tried to explain to him how he would insult a dozen Japanese speaking like that.. He didn't get it, "Why, its what they said in an anime??" "Yeah, Japanese kids get its bad language and know if they ever used it, they might get wrapped in the mouth for it..." Japanese is a language that involves proper usage of words and used properly. You must know when to use phrases and when ever not to use phrases.."

He was like, "You are full of shit, they wouldn't use it in anime if they insulted each other..." He just didn't get it. I never heard back how his Japanese vacation was, but I am betting some guy belted him in the face for saying "Baka Yaro" often enough.


as for Japanese bun: Nihon no pan. (Pan is the word for bread and buns. Its taken from the Portuguese word for bread.)

[yourpaljoey]

10. Like saying Pogue Mahone to an Irish person ;) (It was the name of a band, how bad can it be?)

I am learning Japanese from Youtube.
Slow going, to be sure.

[yuiyoshida]

11. That's a start

formal Japanese classes are better. I would also recommend finding an language exchange student. Its so much better when you can learn to not only converse in Japanese but hear how words are spoken, even if they are spoken swiftly.

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. trivia question: what's the only element named after a geographical feature of Britain?

No using Google, of course.

[NNadir]

14. Strontium.

[muriel_volestrangler]

7. IUPAC is naming the four new elements Nihonium, Moscovium, Tennessine,and Oganesson

The names of all new elements in general would have an ending that reflects and maintains historical and chemical consistency. This would be in general “-ium” for elements belonging to groups 1-16, “-ine” for elements of group 17 and “-on” for elements of group 18. Finally, the names for new chemical elements in English should allow proper translation into other major languages.
...
Moscovium is in recognition of the Moscow region and honors the ancient Russian land that is the home of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, where the discovery experiments were conducted using the Dubna Gas-Filled Recoil Separator in combination with the heavy ion accelerator capabilities of the Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions.

Tennessine is in recognition of the contribution of the Tennessee region, including Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Vanderbilt University, and the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, to superheavy element research, including the production and chemical separation of unique actinide target materials for superheavy element synthesis at ORNL’s High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) and Radiochemical Engineering Development Center (REDC).

For the element with atomic number 118 the collaborating teams of discoverers at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Dubna (Russia) and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (USA) proposed the name oganesson and symbol Og. The proposal is in line with the tradition of honoring a scientist and recognizes Professor Yuri Oganessian (born 1933) for his pioneering contributions to transactinoid elements research. His many achievements include the discovery of superheavy elements and significant advances in the nuclear physics of superheavy nuclei including experimental evidence for the “island of stability”.

http://iupac.org/elements.html

[yuiyoshida]

9. glad they didn't use

unobtainium

[Duppers]

12. haha!

Good one.

[Javaman]

13. if they did, it would have crashed the internet. LOL nt