Periodic Table Adds Element

Fourteen years after its discovery, a new element has been added to the periodic table. Copernicium (Cn) will take its place as element number 112 after a long dispute over naming. The leader of the victorious German team said he picked Copernicus to “salute an influential scientist who didn’t receive any accolades in his own lifetime, and highlight the link between astronomy and the field of nuclear chemistry,” he tells the Los Angeles Times. (More periodic table stories.)