Sigurd Hofmann and his team at the GSI Centre for Heavy Ion Research in Darmstadt, Germany, made1 the first atom of element 112 way back in 1996, but it has only recently been officially recognized2 as a new element, even though its chemistry has already been explored3. Based on further work by the GSI team and independent confirmation of their findings by researchers at RIKEN in Japan, the criteria set by IUPAC for the discovery of new chemical elements have now been fulfilled.

Currently, element 112 goes by a couple of different names. One is 'eka-mercury', which follows the style of provisional names that Mendeleev gave to predicted elements yet to be discovered. 'Eka' is derived from the Sanskrit word for 'one', and eka-mercury is the element one place below mercury in the periodic table. 'Ununbium' is the rather unromantic and systematic place-holder name given to element 112 by IUPAC.

Now that Hofmann and his team have officially been credited with the discovery of element 112, however, they get to choose what it will be called — subject to IUPAC approval. The team has been responsible for naming elements 107–111; three of them after people and two after places. Now the speculation begins on what 112 will be named after.