Fun_People Archive
18 Mar
Six Element Names Approved by International Union

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From: Peter Langston <psl>
Date: Wed, 18 Mar 98 11:48:22 -0800
To: Fun_People
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Subject: Six Element Names Approved by International Union

Forwarded-by: "Stephen Nelson" <snelson@nwlink.com>

From: the March 1998 issue of AIChE Extra, published by the American
Institute of Chemical Engineers:

Resolving an international debate that has gone on for 30 years, the
International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry officially named six
laboratory-made elements on the periodic table in September 1997.  The
approval of the elements' names - rutherfordium (Rf), dubnium (Db),
seaborgium (Sg), bohrium (Bh), hassium (Hs), and meitnerium (Mt) - settled
differences between researchers in the U.S., Germany, and Russia, but "in
the end, this is a compromise that doesn't satisfy anybody completely," said
Jeffrey Leigh of the chemists' union.

But, noted DISCOVER magazine, maybe Glenn Seaborg, still a researcher at
the Lawrence Berkeley Labs at the University of California at Berkeley, has
a reason to smile.  "Not only is he the first living scientist to have an
element named after him, he's also the only person whol could receive mail
addressed only in elements: Seaborgium, Lawrencium, Berkelium, Californium,
Americium.  But don't forget the zip code," the magazine added.

© 1998 Peter Langston