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Transfermium Element Names Finally Settled

After two years of controversy, the names of elements 104-109 have finally been accepted by nuclear scientists and certified by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC).

The delay over the names was causedpartly by rival claims to priority; the pertinent experiments rendered mere handfuls of atoms. It was also partly due to the capriciousness of the IUPAC committee assigned to certifying the names who rejected the names submitted by the discoverers (Seaborgium was initially rejected because Glenn Seaborg had had the bad grace to not be dead yet; some names were kept but assigned ot different elements, etc).

We will all now have to memorize the following additions to the Periodic Table:

Element Name Symbol Number 104 Rutherfordium Rf 105 Dubnium Db 106 Seaborgium Sg 107 Bohrium Bh 108 Hassium Hs 109 Meitnerium Mt

(The New York Times, 4 March 1997.)