WWWTP? C'mon, TIME Magazine!

Update, 18:00 GMT - TIME has removed the stock photo,  fixed the strange "Period Table" language, and appended a correction. Kudos to the editorial staff for fast turnaround.

You can't go anywhere on the Internet today without hearing the clamor surrounding newly-confirmed element 115. Fantastic achievement, and another stepping stone towards the long-predicted "island of stability" - super-heavy atoms rumored to have longer lifetimes and higher stability (somewhere north of 118).

But the reporting surrounding the feat? A little less excellent.

Take, for example, this snippet from TIME's Science & Space desk. It hits all the high points, culling quotes from Lund's press release and explaining in plain English how the element came to be. But there's two glaring errors in the first inch of column!

Source: Time.com

1. Where on Earth did that stock photo come from? And who vetted it? First, no one uses the term "Joliotium" for Element 105 anymore; that's been Dubnium since 1997. Even when Joliotium was in play, no one abbreviated it as "Ji" (they used Jl). And Rutherfordium (Rf) isn't 106, but 104. 106 honors Glenn Seaborg, and shortens to Sg.

2. I've never heard the Periodic Table called the "Period Table" before. Are we describing atoms and elements, or 18th-century furniture?

C'mon, TIME, you can do better than this!

Welcome, Akirium?

Researchers at RIKEN in Japan announced today that they had most likely synthesized a few atoms of Ununtrium, or Element 113. Despite previous detections of the element by both RIKEN and a Russian group, further investigation by various international scientific agencies did not award naming rights to either party.

It'll never happen, but I can dream...
c. Katsuhiro Otomo

Now, I'm neither a physicist nor a nuclear chemist, so I'll leave explaining of atomic decay patterns to Phillip Broadwith over at Chemistry World. But I do love a good periodic table naming story, so I kinda hope that the Japanese group wins out. Not to disparage Russian nuclear research - it's top-notch - but they've named a few already (Dubnium, Flerovium), and most of the rest have come from Europe, the U.S., or come up through antiquity.

So, what would a Japanese-discovered element be called? Researchers at RIKEN have suggested some fairly bland entries: "rikenium," or "japonium," reflecting tradition in naming the new element after its place of discovery (wouldn't that second one be "nipponium?"). Names can also honor the researcher, which here might mean "Moritum."

Of course, I like to dream about names just slightly further afield. Akira, one of the more successful manga and a cultural touchstone, would make an excellent eponym: "Akirium."

Readers, what would you name a new element, if you had the chance?

Update, 9/27/12 - Readers from the Twitterverse suggest a few more candidates: "Nintendium," "Friday13eon," "Sonyicum," "Unlukium," and "Sushinium."