By the periodic table’s logic, all d-block elements should have filled s orbitals. But copper defies that logic. It should have the electron configuration [Ar] 3d 9 4s 2 .

But during the talk, which took place in January at the launch of the International Year of the Periodic Table, Oganessian says, discovering the superheavy elements (SHEs) with proton numbers 104 ...

Which concept lies at the heart of chemists' understanding of structure and reactivity? It is surely orbitals, which underpin our interpretation of organic, inorganic and quantum chemistry ...

The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), the US-based global authority on chemistry, had announced on Dec 30 last year that the table's seventh row was now complete.