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Motörhead Fans Are Petitioning to Have a New Heavy Metal Element Named After Lemmy Kilmister

How about just re-naming Jack Daniels after the great man?

Image via change.org

It’s a known fact that Lemmy Kilmister was and always will be one of the true gods of rock and metal. We bade him a fond farewell just last week, when he left this mortal coil (and undoubtedly headed straight up to Valhalla) at age 70, after being diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer.

Now, a new petition is calling for a newly discovered heavy metal element to be named “Lemmium” in tribute to the late Motörhead frontman.

John Wright, from the United Kingdom, has launched a petition through Change.org calling on The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry to have Lemmy’s name attributed to one of four new element created by scientists at the Lawrence Livermore laboratory in California.

“Lemmy was a force of nature and the very essence of heavy metal,” Wright wrote on the petition page. “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.”

The IUPAC has strict rules about naming elements, specifically that it must be named after "a mythological concept, a mineral, a place or country, a property or a scientist."

Wright argues that Kilmister meets the naming criteria since a star was already named after him, and so the element would be named after the star. As of press time, the petition has already accrued over 25,000 signatures. Head here to add yours!