The criteria for discovering a new element

The hunt for new elements is one of the most exciting frontiers of science, and the attempts to create new atomic nuclei are closely followed around the world. With no gaps in our current periodic table, the days of discovering an element in nature are probably over. Instead, isotopes of new elements are created in laboratories by nuclear fusion and typically have very short half-lives, which makes identification and verification difficult.

Of course, all claims to have discovered a new element need proof before they are accepted by the scientific community and ‘priority’ – the right to be recognised as an element’s discoverer – is decided. Now a group of experts from around the world have reviewed how such claims can be confirmed, which is likely to decide the criteria of element discovery as we push into the eighth row of the periodic table.