29 November 2011

Elementary, my dears! Part 4.

Well, that took far longer than I expected. Just a few more elements, and anything else interesting I can find.



  • Plutonium. 1941, secret until after the war. Named for the planet, Pluto.
  • Protactinium. 1913. Greek for "parent of actinium."
  • Roentgenium. 1994. Named for Wilhelm Roentgen, who discovered x-rays.
  • Rutherfordium. 1964. Named for Ernest Rutherford.
  • Seaborgium. 1974. Named for Glenn Seaborg.
  • Thorium. 1828. Named for Thor.
  • Ununhexium. 2000. Means 116.
  • Ununoctium. 2006. Means 118.
  • Ununpentium. 2004. Means 115.
  • Ununquadrium. 1998. Means 114.
  • Ununseptium. 2010. Means 117.
  • Ununtrium. 2004. Means 113.
  • Uranium. 1789. Named for the planet, Uranus.
Three women have discovered elements:

-Marguerite Catherine Perey. Francium. 1939.


-Marie Curie. Polonium. 1898.
              Radium. 1898.


-Ida Tacke-Noddack. Rhenium. 1925.




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2 comments:

  1. PenniNovember 29, 2011 at 10:24 PM

    There was actually a scandal over Seaborgium. IUPAC was ready to name the element after Glenn T. Seaborg when he was still alive! Egads! This is never done!! It's customary for elements to be named after people who are already dead.

    Also, American chemists wanted to name element 104 after Rutherford; Russian chemists wanted to name the element after a Russian chemist. We had a fight over that for a while as well.....

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  2. AnonymousNovember 29, 2011 at 11:59 PM

    I actually wondered about Seaborg, because I noticed that it was discovered by colleagues of his. But I didn't think to go back and look at his dates. Thanks for adding that!

    I'd also like to add that it irks me that three elements are all named after Ytterby, Sweden. Possibly the most obnoxious town name ever.

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