Back in January we reported on a petition that was floating around the Internet for science to name one of the four newly discovered elements after Motörhead frontman Lemmy. The petition needed 200,000 signatures but only got over 156,000, which is still pretty good, though the real kicker is that Lemmy passed away between then and now… so what does science do? Not name an element after Lemmy anyway. Those nerdy bastards.
I mean really, who do they think they are? Naming science things after things that pertain to science? According to IFLS, the elements were named Nihonium (Nh), Moscovium (Mc), Tennessine (Ts), and Oganesson (Og) and were named accordingly by their discoverers.
As is tradition with new elements, the discoverers get to pick the name. Nihonium, discovered at the RIKEN Nishina Center for Accelerator Science, refers to the Japanese name for Japan, Nihon. Moscovium refers to Moscow, where it was found at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna.
Tennessine refers to the US State of Tennessee, the location of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Vanderbilt University where it was found. Last but not least is Oganesson, which refers to nuclear physicist Yuri Oganessian, who led the research for this element and others.
Y'know, we really had a chains here. We could've gotten a new element called ChainsawGutsfuckium or something cool, and all we got were four elements named things that matter. All we need to do now is discover an element, get it accepted, and then once and for all we can have Lemmium! Or ChainsawGutsfuckium, which is definitely a contender.
