article_snippet.sent: It has been a key part school chemistry lessons for more than a century, but now the periodic table may need to be redrawn after scientists found a rare element may be very different from originally thought.
article_snippet.sent: But the results of new research suggest the element may have properties similar to sodium and potassium, which may fuel arguments that the element would be better placed in the main body the periodic table.
article_snippet.sent: If it is redraw, it is redraw means that chemistry students could have to relearn the order of how the elements appear.
article_snippet.sent: There are several newly discovered atoms that currently do not appear on the periodic table.
article_snippet.sent: Two years ago scientists claimed to have discovered the existence of a new atom with an atomic number of 115.
article_snippet.sent: In a paper published in the journal Foundations of Chemistry last month, Dr William Jensen, a chemist at the University of Cincinnati said: 'Though there are many misconceptions concerning the nature and function of the periodic law and table, perhaps the most prevalent among modern chemists is the belief that the periodic table is nothing more than an electron configuration table. '
article_snippet.sent: While there is certainly a significant correlation between electron configurations and chemical periodicity, the correlation is far from perfect. '
article_snippet.sent: This representation of the periodic table shows the ionisation potential of elements following the new results .
article_snippet.sent: However, in a statement, the Japan Atomic Energy Agency said the Japan Atomic Energy Agency did not feel the Japan Atomic Energy Agency affected the structure of the periodic table.
article_snippet.sent: Despite the debate the result is likely to now generate, Professor Andreas Türler, a chemist at the Albert Einstein Centre for Fundamental Physics at the University of Bern, Switzerland, described the experiment as 'spectacular'.