The edition of four new elements to the periodic table roughly coincided with the death of Motörhead lead singer and bassist Ian Fraser "Lemmy Kilmister" — and some fans now see this as the perfect opportunity to commemorate one of the founding fathers of heavy metal. A petition is making rounds on the Internet to do exactly that — and so far, it's garnered more than 100,000 signatures.
"Lemmy was a force of nature and the very essence of heavy metal," reads the petition, which was launched by Motörhead fan John Wright. "We believe it is fitting that the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry recommend that one of the four new discovered Heavy Metals in the Periodic table is named Lemmium."
As NPR pointed out, according to the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry's (Iupac) guidelines, newly-discovered (and therefore unnamed) elements can be named after places, people, things or even "mythological concepts," but the introduction of Lemmium (if it were to happen) would mark the first time an element was named after someone unrelated to any scientific field.
The petition isn't the first campaign to memorialize Lemmy after his death on Dec. 28 mere days after receiving a cancer diagnosis. One Motörhead fan began a Change.org petition to officially change the name of the Jack Daniels and Coke mixed drink, commonly referred to as a Jack and Coke, to the "Lemmy."
Via: NPR
Photo: Goran Beg | Flickr
