Music
Metalheads petition scientists to name new element after Lemmy
by Richard Howard
January 6, 2016
'Lemmium' is the proposed name of the newly discovered heavy metal.
The ease with with which petitions can now be created and circulated has resulted in many that are irritatingly whiny, absolutely pointless, or bizarre to the point of being incredible. This is definitely one of the latter.
A science-minded Motörhead fan named John Wright has created a Change.org petition to have one of four newly discovered heavy metals named ‘Lemmium’ in honour of the band’s recently deceased frontman Lemmy Kilmister.
Turns out Wright has done his homework as well: in his plea to the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, he points out that an astrological object (a star) has already been named after Lemmy, thus similarly naming the new metal would meet their naming requirements. In case the element-eggheads needed more convincing, he added this elegant observation: “Lemmy was a force of nature and the very essence of heavy metal.” Touché, buddy.
The petition, started only two days ago, has already gathered over 38,000 supporters.
