Names proposed for new elements

The element plutonium was used to create one of the new additions to the Periodic Table

Scientists have put forward their suggested names for the newest additions to the Periodic Table.

If the names are accepted, element 114 will become Flerovium (Fl) in honour of the physicist Georgiy Flerov.

While element 116 will become Livermorium (Lv), after the Californian laboratory where it was discovered.

The table's governing body will officially endorse the names in five month's time, 10 years after the elements were discovered.

The newest elements were among a handful of elements put forward for inclusion in the table in recent years.

They were accredited in June this year after a three year review by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) and the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP).

The other putative heavy elements, 113, 115, and 118, are still under review.

Scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), in collaboration with a team at the Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions in Dubna, Russia, discovered the newest additions to the periodic table by smashing calcium ions into the element curium to create element 116, which quickly decays to element 114.

The teams also created element 114 separately by replacing curium with a plutonium target.

IUPAC will officially accept the proposed names after giving the public time to comment on the discoverers' choice.