Well folks, it’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for – Professor Sigurd Hofmann has decided what he would like to call element 112.

Following a long tradition, he has proposed naming the newest element after an eminent scientist who changed the way we look at our world and its surroundings.

Unfortunately, none of the suggestions made on this blog quite made the cut, although I’d like to think that Fibonaccium and Emergencium came pretty close.

Anyway, the winner is…

Nicolaus Copernicus, the first astronomer to propose a heliocentric model of the solar system (i.e. that the earth and all the other planets orbit the sun and not vice versa)

It will take IUPAC around six months to endorse the new name, but providing all goes well, element 112 shall henceforth be known as Copernicium, with the symbol Cp.

You can find more information (and pictures) on the website of the GSI in Darmstadt

So what does everyone think? Are you happy that Copernicus has taken the crown? Do you feel your favourite chemist was robbed? Are you going to get the new element symbol confused with the heat capacity at constant pressure (or is that just me…)?

Phillip Broadwith