The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) has recommended names for elements 114 and 116. Scientists from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and at Dubna proposed the names as Flerovium for element 114 and Livermorium for element 116.

Flerovium (atomic symbol Fl) was chosen to honor Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions, where superheavy elements, including element 114, were synthesized. Georgiy N. Flerov (1913-1990) was a renowned physicist who discovered the spontaneous fission of uranium and was a pioneer in heavy-ion physics. He is the founder of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research. In 1991, the laboratory was named after Flerov - Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions (FLNR).

Livermorium (atomic symbol Lv) was chosen to honor Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and the city of Livermore, Calif. A group of researchers from the Laboratory, along with scientists at the Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions, participated in the work carried out in Dubna on the synthesis of superheavy elements, including element 116. (Lawrencium -- Element 103 -- was already named for LLNL's founder E.O. Lawrence.)

In 1989, Flerov and Ken Hulet (1926-2010) of LLNL established collaboration between scientists at LLNL and scientists at FLNR; one of the results of this long-standing collaboration was the synthesis of elements 114 and 116.

The creation of elements 116 and 114 involved smashing calcium ions (with 20 protons each) into a curium target (96 protons) to create element 116. Element 116 decayed almost immediately into element 114. The scientists also created element 114 separately by replacing curium with a plutonium target (94 protons).

The creation of elements 114 and 116 generate hope that the team is on its way to the "island of stability," an area of the periodic table in which new heavy elements would be stable or last long enough for applications to be found.

The new names were submitted to the IUPAC in late October. The new names will not be official until about five months from now when the public comment period is over.

In the standard form of the periodic table the s-block, p-block, and d-block elements are organised into 18 vertical columns called groups. These are labelled from 1 to 18 under current IUPAC numenclature.

Earlier labelling schemes (Trivial Group names)

For historical reasons some Groups have special names. Terms such as the "alkali metals" are in very common use whereas the term "pnictogens" is very much less common. Some of these special names are listed in the Table.

In addition the elements 57-71 (lanthanum-lutetium) are referred to as the lanthanoids (lanthanides) and the elements 89-103 (actinium-lawrencium) are referred to as the actinoids (actinides). The elements Sc, Y, and the lanthanoids are sometimes referred to as the rare earths.

The s-, p-, and d-blocks contain a total of 18 groups. The latest recommendations from IUPAC (the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry) require that these be labelled 1 - 18 from left to right. This is a good recommendation in the sense that it is at least unambiguous.

Confusion in labelling schemes

There are two other ways of labelling the groups, and both use labels 1-8 (often in Roman numeral format) with further A and B labels. Unfortunately there is enormous confusion here. The two schemes are shown in the table below, underneath the new IUPAC scheme in the first row. It is easy to see the origins of the confusion!

One of these systems is more common in America and the other in Europe but there is really only room for one convention on a small planet, which is where the IUPAC systems scores. These days most new books are printed with the IUPAC labels, but often one of the older conventions is given as well.

The point about confusion is important. If you really must use one of the two older formats, then you must define which you are using. Otherwise it's not clear whether Group 3B refers to the boron group or to the scandium group.