Subject: Oooohhh!! Signed! (nm)
Author:
Posted on: 2016-02-11 18:29:00 UTC
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Petition to name an element for Terry Pratchett. by
on 2016-02-11 10:38:00 UTC
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This will not work.
But it should.
Petition to IUPAC: Name new element 117 Octarine, in honour of Terry Pratchett's Discworld
This petition is to name element 117, recently confirmed by the International Union of Applied Chemistry, as 'Octarine', with the proposed symbol Oc (pronounced 'ook'), in honour of the late Terry Pratchett and his Discworld series of books.
The Discworld series has sold more than 70 million books worldwide, in 37 different languages. Terry Pratchett died in 2015 and his final book, The Shepherd's Crown, was published in the same year. He was well-known as a lover of science and, with two well-known science writers, co-wrote a series of four books called The Science of the Discworld, which took a sideways look at 'roundworld' (Earth) science.
Octarine, in the Discworld books, is known as 'the colour of magic', which forms the title of Pratchett's first ever Discworld book. According to Disc mythology, octarine is visible only to wizards and cats, and is generally described as a sort of greenish-yellow purple colour, which seems perfect for what will probably be the final halogen in the periodic table. Octarine is also a particularly pleasing choice because, not only would it honour a world-famous and much-loved author, but it also has an 'ine' ending, consistent with the other elements in group 17.
Octarine is being counted as 'a mythological concept' under IUPAC rules, which state that elements must be named after "a mythological concept or character; a mineral, or similar substance; a place or geographical region; a property of the element; or a scientist". The Discworld stories are certainly stories about gods and heroes, and 70 million books surely count for something.
This will super never happen. Ununseptium was discovered by Russians, who are probably not particular fans of Pterry. It's also in row seven, group 7 of the periodic table, making the name 'octarine' hilariously wrong.
But it should happen.
hS -
In my opinon, by
on 2016-02-12 06:11:00 UTC
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The more hilariously wrong it is, the more we should do it.
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Why not? (nm) by
on 2016-02-11 19:06:00 UTC
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Couple of reasons. by
on 2016-02-11 21:17:00 UTC
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The main one is that name proposals have to come from the institute that discovered the element. In this case it's a cooperative effort between Russia's JINR in Dubna and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. So petitioning IUPAC is pointless - they'll only accept ideas from the contributing labs. (Luckily, the petition also specifies those two.)
Secondly, most of the work seems to have been done by the Russians - who one assumes aren't big Pratchett fans.
Thirdly, IUPAC's rules say that elements must be named for " a mythological concept or character (including an astronomical object), a mineral, or similar substance, a place or geographical region, a property of the element, or a scientist," and must end in -ium. The petition tries to swing octarine as mythology, which is actually the same thing being tried for naming regions of Pluto. Not a very strong case, and the ending is definitely wrong.
hS -
One other thing... by
on 2016-02-12 10:25:00 UTC
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Surely the better candidate would be octiron, considering that it's the actual element. Or at least the solid form, which might be elemental and probably only is if you don't look hard enough. =]
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There's also octogen, by
on 2016-02-12 10:42:00 UTC
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which is apparently a gas that radiates raw magic. And octarines are magical glowing gemstones (presumably containing octiron in their structure?).
I'd imagine they picked Octarine for the name recognition.
hS -
Oooohhh!! Signed! (nm) by
on 2016-02-11 18:29:00 UTC
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Yes, please. Signed. (nm) by
on 2016-02-11 14:28:00 UTC
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Wouldn't ununoctium be more appropriate? (nm) by
on 2016-02-11 13:08:00 UTC
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But Uuo is a noble gas. by
on 2016-02-11 13:56:00 UTC
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That means it would traditionally end with -on, whereas the halogens - fluorine, chlorine, bromine, iodine, astatine - have the -ine ending.
Though IUPAC seem to want every new element to end in -ium these days, which is boring and will break both those patterns. Owell.
hS -
And signed. by
on 2016-02-11 12:10:00 UTC
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I haven't been able to get my hands on many of his books but the ones that I have read were phenomenal. (And my birthday's in a few months, so who knows? Might be getting some more for myself...)
I'm gonna be keeping an ear out to see what happens. -
Signed. by
on 2016-02-11 11:11:00 UTC
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Considering that Pterry fans also made a statue occur (well, it's been confirmed as going to occur) that was not particularly wanted, I can agree with this, certainly.
Besides, it isn't the first ridiculously named element we have.
-July
Completely randomly, how do you feel about camels? -
The most ridiculously named elements... by
on 2016-02-11 11:24:00 UTC
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... are probably Yttrium (39), Terbium (65), Erbium (68), and Ytterbium (70), because they're all named after the same place.
Camels, of course, are expert mathematicians/biplanes/cigarettes.
hS -
Precisely! by
on 2016-02-11 11:26:00 UTC
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And I will take that as a general positive opinion regarding camels.
-July, plotting -
July. Please don't send me a camel. by
on 2016-02-11 11:30:00 UTC
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They
spithave too many moving partscause canceroh wait I know what works for all three: they smell. ^_^
hS -
It'd be a mite difficult to ship a camel from the ship. by
on 2016-02-11 11:34:00 UTC
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I will take due consideration and not send you a single camel.
I'll find one for each of you, so you don't have to share.
-July, looping -
... by
on 2016-02-11 11:45:00 UTC
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Some said the ship was HMS Ark Royal. Some said she was the nuclear-powered carrier Charles de Gaulle. Some said she was the original USS Constitution (under very heavy disguise). Her name didn't matter.
What mattered was that she was currently playing host to a herd of camels.
July stood on the walkway, watching the flock with a malevolent grin on her face. "So that's two - no, four for hS," she mused. "Then two for Neshomeh, one for Miss Cam - that'll throw her - and then... hmm."
She drummed her fingers on the railing, and then brightened up. "And then it's the end of the month," she said aloud, "which means it's time for another four to hS..."
~
What?
hS -
And that is how England became colonized by camels. by
on 2016-02-11 11:50:00 UTC
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That said, they're actually quite expensive, which is boggling.
I suppose I could send you goats instead, but those are already endemic.
-July, who price checked -
Protectors of the Parade of Camels? =] (nm) by
on 2016-02-11 16:16:00 UTC
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How you guys ever noticed... by
on 2016-02-11 17:07:00 UTC
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That every single camel looks like it's totally baked?
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Caramel-tone camels? (nm) by
on 2016-02-11 23:06:00 UTC
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