We can now add the newest element to the periodic table. It has been named Copernicium in honour of Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543), the Polish astronomer who first hypothesized that the Earth revolves around the Sun. Don’t expect to have a bottle of it on a shelf though. Copernicium does not occur in nature, it is made in the lab by bombarding lead-208 nuclei with zinc-70 nuclei and has only a fleeting existence. The element has no practical use but its synthesis provides information that can improve our understanding of atomic structure.
