Story highlights Elements 113, 115, 117 and 118 to be added to the periodic table

The seventh row of the table will now be complete

Scientists to devise permanent names for new elements

(CNN) Chemistry textbooks as we know it are officially out of date, as four new elements will soon be added to the periodic table.

Elements 113, 115, 117 and 118 have formally been recognized by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), the U.S.-based world authority on chemistry. The organization's announcement on December 30 means the seventh row of the periodic table is finally complete.

It's the first time the table has been updated since 2011, when elements 114 (Flerovium) and 116 (Livermorium) were added. Devised by Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev in 1869, the table categorizes chemical elements according to their atomic number.

"The chemistry community is eager to see its most cherished table finally being completed down to the seventh row," said Jan Reedijk, president of the Inorganic Chemistry Division of IUPAC, in a statement

"IUPAC has now initiated the process of formalizing names and symbols for these elements temporarily named as ununtrium, (Uut or element 113), ununpentium (Uup, element 115), ununseptium (Uus, element 117), and ununoctium (Uuo, element 118)."

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