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 2016 the element was officially recognised and naming rights were assigned to Riken, as they were judged to have been first to observe it. 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.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nihonium

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1796:

French Revolutionary Wars: French forces defeated the Austrians at the Battle of Arcole in a manoeuvre to cut the latter's line of retreat. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Arcole

1968:

NBC controversially cut away from an American football game between the Oakland Raiders and New York Jets to broadcast Heidi, causing viewers in the Eastern United States to miss the game's dramatic ending. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heidi_Game

2009:

Administrators at the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia discovered that their servers had been hacked and thousands of emails and files on climate change had been stolen. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climatic_Research_Unit_email_controversy

2013:

Tatarstan Airlines Flight 363 crashed during an aborted landing at Kazan International Airport in Tatarstan, Russia, killing all 50 people on board and leading to the revocation of the airline's operating certificate. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatarstan_Airlines_Flight_363

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

monopsony: 1. (economics) A market situation in which there is only one buyer for a product; also, such a buyer. 2. (economics) A buyer with disproportionate power. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/monopsony

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

People make a grievous error thinking that a list of facts is the truth. Facts are just the bare bones out of which truth is made.   --Shelby Foote https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Shelby_Foote