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Flerovium and Livermorium Join the Future Earth: Research for Global Periodic Table Sustainability n 30 May 2012, IUPAC officially approved he International Council for Science (ICSU), of the name flerovium, with symbol Fl, for the which IUPAC is a member, announced a new Oelement of atomic number 114 and the name T10-year initiative named Future Earth to unify livermorium, with symbol Lv, for the element of atomic and scale up ICSU-sponsored global environmental- number 116. The names and symbols were proposed change research. by the collaborating team of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (Dubna, Russia) and the Lawrence Operational in 2013, this new ICSU initiative will Livermore National Laboratory (Livermore, California, provide a cutting-edge platform to coordinate scien- USA) to whom the priority for the discovery of these tific research to respond to the most critical social and elements was assigned last year. The IUPAC recom- environmental challenges of the 21st century at global mendations presenting these names is to appear in and regional levels. “This initiative will link global envi- the July 2012 issue of Pure and Applied Chemistry. ronmental change and fundamental human develop- ment questions,” said Diana Liverman, co-director of The name flerovium, with symbol Fl, lies within the Institute of the Environment at the University of tradition and honors the Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Arizona and co-chair of the team Reactions in Dubna, Russia, where the element of that is designing Future Earth. atomic number 114 was synthesized. Georgiy N. “Global environmental change Flerov (1913–1990) was a renowned physicist, an affects our ability to access food, author of the discovery of the spontaneous fission water, and energy. It increases our of uranium in 1940 (with Konstantin A. Petrzhak), a vulnerability to hazardous events, pioneer in heavy-ion physics, and founder in 1957 of and erodes our ability to eradicate the Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions, part of the Joint poverty,” said Liverman. “Only by Institute for Nuclear Research. actively engaging natural sciences, The name livermorium, with the symbol Lv, for the social sciences, and humanities and element with atomic number 116 is again in line with by working with the full range of tradition and honors the Lawrence Livermore National users and producers of knowledge, Laboratory. A group of researchers at this laboratory can we provide a full understanding took part in the work carried out in Dubna on the syn- of global change and its impact on thesis of superheavy elements, including element 116. societies and ecosystems.” “These names honor not only the individual con- Future Earth will have a new global governance tributions of scientists from these laboratories to the body and secretariat, building on the strengths of fields of nuclear science, heavy element research, and existing core global environmental change programs, superheavy element research, but also the phenom- which are co-sponsored by ICSU. The program was enal cooperation and collaboration that has occurred officially launched in June at the United Nations between scientists in these two countries,” said Bill “Rio+20” conference. Goldstein, associate director of LLNL’s Physical and “We are very proud of the enormous scien- Life Sciences Directorate. tific achievements of the ICSU-sponsored Global Priority of claims to the discovery of the elements Environmental Change Programs over the last of atomic numbers 114 and 116 was determined by a decades,” said Yuan T. Lee, winner of the 1986 Joint Working Party of independent experts drawn Nobel Prize in Chemistry and ICSU president. Lee from IUPAC and the International Union of Pure and stressed that “unifying the different efforts through Applied Physics. The group’s report was published this new broad partnership will provide the step- in Pure and Applied Chemistry in July 2011. A newly change needed in international research coordination appointed Joint Working Party has now begun work to face the challenges posed by global environmental to assign priority for the discovery of elements 113, 115, change.” He added, “the enthusiasm and engagement 117, 118, and heavier elements. of the whole community will be essential to the suc- cess of this endeavor.” www.iupac.org www.icsu.org/future-earth

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