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Today's featured article Researchers celebrating the naming of nihonium Nihonium is a synthetic chemical element with symbol Nh and atomic number 113. It is extremely radioactive; its most stable known isotope, nihonium-286, has a half-life of about 10 seconds. In the periodic table, nihonium is a transactinide element at the intersection of period 7 and group 13. Its creation was reported in 2003 by a Russian–American collaboration at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia, and in 2004 by a team of Japanese scientists at Riken in Wakō, Japan. The discoveries were confirmed by independent teams working in the United States, Germany, Sweden, and China. In 2015 the element was officially recognised by the IUPAC/IUPAP Joint Working Party; naming rights were assigned to Riken, as they were judged to have been first to confirm their discovery. The name, approved in the same year (announcement pictured), derives from a Japanese word for Japan, Nihon. Few details are known about nihonium, as it has only been formed in very small amounts that decay away within seconds. (Full article...) Recently featured: "Well he would, wouldn't he?" Arnold Bennett Torture Selected anniversaries	In the news Plaza Murillo surrounded by soldiers In Bolivia, troops led by Juan José Zúñiga storm the presidential palace in an attempted coup (pictured). WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is released from prison as part of a U.S. plea bargain. Protesters attack the Parliament Buildings in Nairobi, Kenya, leaving 19 people dead and at least 160 others injured. A fire at a lithium battery factory in the South Korean city of Hwaseong leaves at least 23 people dead, many of them Chinese migrant workers. Ongoing: Israel–Hamas war timeline Russian invasion of Ukraine timeline Sudanese civil war timeline Recent deaths: Frederick Crews Sika Anoaʻi Margarita Voites Lothar Gall Romay Davis Howard Bernstein Did you know... Bermuda onion ... that the Bermuda onion (pictured) was so closely associated with Bermuda that the island's inhabitants became known as "onions"? ... that a U.S. Navy plane piloted by Michael Wettlaufer clipped the tower of a Florida TV station while on a training mission, forcing it off the air for nearly five years? ... that military officer Chris Tanasale was selected as the mayor of Ambon, Indonesia, to prevent the alienation of local Christians? ... that YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim has updated the description of his video "Me at the zoo" on multiple occasions to criticize the website's business decisions? ... that the Nazis killed more than fifty Dutch nationals in retaliation for the assassinations of Hendrik Seyffardt and Hermannus Reydon by the Dutch resistance? ... that fifteen future Pro Football Hall of Fame players have been drafted by the Detroit Lions? ... that a 2007 pop-punk song by Fall Out Boy was named after Michael Jackson's Thriller and begins with a monologue by rapper Jay-Z? ... that the shopping cart is "the ultimate litmus test for whether a person is capable of self-governing", according to the shopping cart theory? ... that a book about book banning was banned?
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