Since it’s #PeriodicTableDay a reminder that when the official discovery of element 117 was announced I, for laughs, proposed it be named octarine (Oc) in honour of Sir Terry Pratchett (who had died a few months before).

The petition went viral and got over 51k signatures.

Sadly, IUPAC weren’t having it and 117 was eventually named tennessine (Ts), after Tennessee where the Oak Ridge National Laboratory is based.

Which. Fine.

It clearly wasn’t *precisely* a million-to-one chance.

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