Japan in upbeat mood over naming of new element as ‘nihonium’

As element No. 113 that was discovered by Japanese scientists has been named "nihonium" by modifying the pronunciation of their country "Nihon," the entire nation is in upbeat mood.

The Japanese media on Thursday reported en masse the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry’s announcement of element No. 113 as "nihonium," saying that it is a wonderful case of achievement in which an element has been named in Asia for the first time. Kosuke Morita, professor of Kyushu University, who is leading the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research, has named the element given his contributions to synthetizing of the element. “I named it by thinking of the Japanese people who cheered on us," the Japanese professor said. "It is a great honor to have a newly discovered element on the periodic table, humanity’s knowledge asset.”

The latest achievement, which the Japanese scientific community considers to be as historic as acquisition of a Nobel Prize, is an outcome of more than 400 trillion failures. The number of collision tests conducted for nine years by Morita’s research team to acquire a new element exceeds 400 trillion times.

The research team started attempts to synthesize a new element in September 2003. The team repeatedly conducted tests in which the nucleus of zinc was accelerated to up to one tenth the speed of light in a special accelerator, before getting it collide with bismuth (bi). Even if the team successfully generated it, it instantly disappeared, and hence the researchers had hard time demonstrating its existence.

The researchers succeeded in synthetization once each in 2004 and 2005, but failed to secure clear evidence. After the great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, they were also criticized by people who questioned whether they have to continue experiment that heavily consumes electricity. However, the team continued experiment. After successfully synthesizing the element for the third time in 2012, the researchers declared discovery of a new element. IUPAC has announced "nihonium" as its official name as it officially confirmed the existence of this element late last year.

There is another story Japanese people call the discovery of the new element as "sorrowful wish." Dr. Masataka Okawa reported that he had discovered element No. 43 in 1908, and named it "niponium." However, the name was called off later since it was shown to be misrecognition of another element. Back then, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported that analysis of X-ray and photos has revealed that the identity of niponium was rhenium, element No. 75, which remained undiscovered at that time.

도쿄=장원재특파원 peacechaos@donga.com