The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry on Wednesday announced the names of four elements in the periodic table that were discovered in January 2016, reported The New York Times. Moscovium (Mc), nihonium (Nh), tennessine (Ts) and oganesson (Og) complete the seventh row of the table. The elements — with atomic numbers 113, 115, 117 and 118 — were discovered in a joint effort by American and Russian scientists.

"The super-heavy element research is one of the most interesting efforts in nuclear physics. It concerns the core question of how protons and neutrons form bound systems — the nuclei. For us experimentalists, it is a formidable experimental challenge because the synthesis of super-heavy elements is incredibly difficult. It takes a concerted effort of many people to make it work. It is a fantastic but also very time- and labor- intensive research program," said co-author Robert Grzywacz, a professor in the UT Department of Physics and Astronomy, according to Science Daily.

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The research also included scientists from Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California and Riken institute in Japan, reported The Guardian.

With this discovery, Japan became the first country in Asia to propose an element in the periodic table. Nihonium got its name from Nihon, which is one of the two words used in Japanese for the country. Japanese researchers discovered this element. Moscovium comes from Moscow to note the contribution of the Russian scientists in the research. Tennessine is named after Tennessee where the Oak Ridge National Laboratory is located. Oganesson got its name from nuclear physicist Yuri Oganessian, who has been part of the discovery of several super-heavy elements.

The IUPAC committee reserves the rights to name chemical elements. The new names are open to challenges and objections. However, the deadline to raise reservations against the names will lapse on November 8.