Newest Elements Need Names

'Ununquadium' and 'ununhexium' just aren't hip enough names for the kids.

The periodic table's two newest elements, one with 114 protons, the other with 116, need names so that high-school chemistry students can have two new reasons to skip class. Both elements, the two heaviest on record, were only believed to have existed before this week, and thus had the temporary, nearly unpronounceable names of ununquadium (114) and ununhexium (116). But with the confirmation of their existence, the drive is on to find the elements decent monikers. Since the elements were produced near Moscow, two names submitted for approval from the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry are “moscovium” and “flerovium,” after Soviet physicist Georgy Flyorov.