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Researchers celebrating the naming of nihonium
Researchers celebrating the naming of nihonium

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 2015 the element was officially recognised by the IUPAC/IUPAP Joint Working Party; naming rights were assigned to Riken, as they were judged to have been first to confirm their discovery. 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. (Full article...)

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Battle of Inab

The Battle of Inab, also called the Battle of Ard al-Hâtim or Fons Muratus, was fought on 29 June 1149 during the Second Crusade. The Zengid army of Nur al-Din Zengi destroyed the combined army of Raymond of Poitiers and the Assassins of Ali ibn-Wafa. The Principality of Antioch was subsequently pillaged and reduced in size as its eastern border was pushed west, and both Raymond and his ally ibn-Wafa were killed. This illustration by Jean Colombe was taken from the 14th-century manuscript Passages d'outremer and depicts the Battle of Inab in the main image above, with the recovery of Raymond's body depicted below. It is part of a volume of 66 such full-page miniatures.

Illustration credit: Jean Colombe

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