Elements 108 and 109 in our International Year of the Periodic Table series are hassium and meitnerium. The second and third of a short series of superheavy elements discovered by German scientists, one has surprising predicted properties, while the other rights a Nobel Prize wrong.
Elements 106 and 107 in our International Year of the Periodic Table series are seaborgium and bohrium. Once again, these elements were subject to naming squabbles and both ended up being named after famous scientists – though not without some controversy.
We’re now 16 periodic tables into this year’s #ChemistryAdvent – as you’ll be fully aware if you’ve been following along! A whole range of topics have been covered so far – from a breakdown of elements in the human body to a rundown of some rejected element names.
Elements 104 and 105 in our International Year of the Periodic Table series are rutherfordium and dubnium. Both are synthetic elements, and American and Russian scientists squabbled over who discovered them and what to call them.
Element 103 in our International Year of the Periodic Table series is lawrencium, named after the inventor of the particle accelerator which made the invention of many of the superheavy elements possible.
Element 102 in our International Year of the Periodic Table series is nobelium, named after the founder of the Nobel Prizes and an element whose discovery was contested by three different teams of scientists.