Unobtainium...
See title...
Periodic table enjoys elemental engorgement
The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) has announced it's satisfied that elements 113, 115, 117, and 118 really do exist and can take their places on the periodic table. Element 113 (going under the temporary name and symbol ununtrium, Uut) was discovered in 2012 by the Japanese research institute RIKEN …
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Monday 4th January 2016 15:58 GMT roytrubshaw
Re: Unobtainium...
<pedant>
No! I say and thrice more No!
This is the element that Dyson Spheres are probably built from (though not Ringworlds - I think that's "Scrith") and is probably what powers light-sabres, hyperdrives, makes micro-fusion possible and a host of other things that we should - in the Red Queen's words - believe in before breakfast.
And since all of these elements have pretty short half-lives there's no way any of them can actually be Unobtainium.
Anyway I'm off before the nice men and women in those bright, white lab...
</pedant>
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Tuesday 5th January 2016 12:45 GMT Peter2
Re: Unobtainium...
ElRegium?
Given that the Roman empire is long since dead, and Latin is a completely dead language that a mere handful of people can read, and fewer still could hold a conversation in it WHY do we persist on hanging Latin suffixes on words that maybe 0.01% of the worlds population understands?
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Tuesday 5th January 2016 18:56 GMT Kristian Walsh
Re: Unobtainium...
It's precisely because nobody speaks Latin that it's used so much for naming. The idea is to have a language that everyone can agree does not favour any one country.
Look at Switzerland: it has four spoken languages, each with its own vocal lobby: even deciding what to put on the postage stamps was a contentious question. The solution was to use Latin, as it belonged to no group at all. So, the stamps say "Helvetia", and the car-stickers read "CH" ("Confœderatio Helvetica" - "[the] Swiss Confederation"), as does the ISO Country code and thus Switzerland's top-level domain name.
Latin's other advantage is that because there are no native speakers to object, its pronunciation has, over the centuries, been knocked into a form that's simple enough that speakers of pretty much any other language can master it.
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Wednesday 6th January 2016 20:04 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Unobtainium...
"Latin's other advantage is that because there are no native speakers to object, its pronunciation has, over the centuries, been knocked into a form that's simple enough that speakers of pretty much any other language can master it."
Ah, but ancient documentaries of Rome clearly show Latin spoken with a British accent (occasionally American), not this silly southern Italian accent they're trying to get us to use...
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Monday 4th January 2016 16:55 GMT Dwarf
Re: Unobtainium...
Have an upvote.
That was EXACTLY on my mind when I hit the forum button and low,you had beaten me to it.
If you are adding that though, then the lower number to it must be the easier to generate "Rarataninum"
Ratchet and Clank - a great time waster. Perhaps I'll go and waste some more time on it ..
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Monday 4th January 2016 18:31 GMT Turtle
It is SO Obvious: Re: Unobtainium...
"Doubtless readers will suggest suitably inspiring titles for 113, 115, 117, and 118, before it's too late."
These elements should be named "onethirteenium, onefifteenium, oneseventeenium, and oneeighteenium" respectively.
Got any other problems do you need solved?
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Monday 4th January 2016 14:45 GMT Your alien overlord - fear me
The Japanese were the 2nd to find element 113 but they were the first to reproduce the making of it (3 times I think) so they get first dibs at naming it. The Russian/US teams found it first but couldn't make it again.
So, are we going to get a remake of The Fifth Element but with a 113 year old Bruce Willis?
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Monday 4th January 2016 14:47 GMT Dr. G. Freeman
113 will be something to do with RIKEN or Japan (Japonium, Rikenium)
115, was the Dubna lot, so Moscovium (we already have Dubnium)
117, Oak Ridge, so Weinburgium after it's first boss maybe ? Well, Weinburgine seeing as it's a halogen- oe either named after the lab (Oakine) or after the state (Tennessine, or Tennessium),
118, Dubna/ Lawerence Livermore team up - so that'll be something safe and non-political... but has to end in -on as its a Noble Gas. Higgson, maybe ?
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Monday 4th January 2016 14:59 GMT Guus Leeuw
What? New direction at The Reg?
Dear Sir,
"Doubtless readers will suggest ..." Why does the author think that his readers are doubtless? I, for one, doubt that the author actually means what he wrote.
So, El Reg, what about that stone editor, now that the site is going to undergo a dramatic change in direction?
Also, while you're at it: How about HTTPS?
Regards.
Guus
Biting the hand that feeds IT
