Tennessee may soon be honored on the periodic table of elements. The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry recommended the names of four recently discovered elements Wednesday that are now only known by numbers.
The proposed name for element 117 is tennessine, (TEH'-neh-seen) in honor of the contributions of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Vanderbilt University and the University of Tennessee to the development of super heavy elements.
Vanderbilt physics Professor Joe Hamilton, a member of the international team that developed the new element, said it's been a long time coming. Hamilton said team members were all in agreement that the new element should be named for the Volunteer State.
Tennessee is the second state honored on the periodic table. California was the first with Californium, discovered in 1950. The other newly named elements are nihonium, moscovium and oganesson.
According to Vanderbilt News, the “ine’ puts tennessine in the halogen chemical family (with fluorine, chlorine and bromine).