Japanese Scientists Produce Element 113

A Japanese scientist thought he had discovered technetium [wikipedia.org] in the early 1900s and named it nipponium, but it was actually just an impure sample of rhenium. IUPAC policy states that any name used temporarily or even incorrectly cannot ever be used again, as it would cause confusion with the literature ("Okay, so this paper says nipponium forms an alloy with carbon, iron, and silicon, while this paper says nipponium only alloys with transition metals!").

So unfortunately there will never be a nipponium.

Source: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotScience/~3/GxKwRUCqUfk/japanese-scientists-produce-element-113

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