元素週期表將添四位新成員 於年初公佈

Four new elements have been added to the periodic table, finally completing the table's seventh row and rendering science textbooks around the world instantly out of date.

據悉，元素週期表將要新添四名新成員，第七行元素將得以完整，而這將使全世界的化學教材瞬間成爲過去時。

The elements, discovered by scientists in Japan, Russia and America, are the first to be added to the table since 2011, when elements 114 and 116 were added.

本次由日本、俄羅斯和美國科學家發現的元素是既2011年114和116號元素加入週期表以來，首批加入的新元素。

The four were verified on 30 December by the US-based International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, the global organisation that governs chemical nomenclature, terminology and measurement.

這四個元素由位於美國的國際純粹與應用化學聯合會於12月30日證實，這個世界性的組織負責着化學界的命名法、術語和測量。

IUPAC announced that a Russian-American team of scientists at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California had produced sufficient evidence to claim the discovery of elements 115, 117 and 118.

國際純粹與應用化學聯合會宣稱，一支由俄羅斯杜布納聯合原子核研究所與美國加利福尼亞勞倫斯利弗莫爾國家實驗室的美俄科學家組成的隊伍，已掌握了充分的證據來證實115號、117號和118號元素的存在。

The body awarded credit for the discovery of element 113, which had also been claimed by the Russians and Americans, to a team of scientists from the Riken institute in Japan.

俄羅斯和美國的科學家們還宣佈發現了113號元素，聯合會把這一榮譽授予了來自日本理化研究所的科學團隊。

Kosuke Morita, who was leading the research at Riken, said his team now planned to “look to the unchartered territory of element 119.”

理化研究所的Kosuke Morita是這次研究的領導者，他說他們的隊伍正計劃“探索119號元素尚未開墾的領域。”

Ryoji Noyori, former Riken president and Nobel laureate in chemistry said: “To scientists, this is of greater value than an Olympic gold medal”.

研究所前主席和諾貝爾化學獎獲得者野依良治表示：“對於科學家來說，這比獲得奧運金牌的價值還要重大。”

The elements, which currently bear placeholder names, will be officially named by the teams that discovered them in the coming months. Element 113 will be the first element to be named in Asia.

現在這幾個元素還是無名氏，接下來的幾個月，它們的發現者隊伍將會正式爲其命名，113號元素也將成爲第一個在亞洲命名的元素。

New elements can be named after a mythological concept, a mineral, a place or country, a property or a scientist.

新元素可以依據某一虛擬概念、礦物或者按發現地點、發現者的國家或者由元素的特性或某個科學家來命名。

The four new elements, all of which are man-made, were discovered by slamming lighter ?nuclei into each other and tracking the following decay of the radioactive superheavy elements.

這四個新元素都是人造的，是由火花與原子核相互撞擊並且循着放射性超重元素衰變的軌跡而發現的。