Nationalism And Chemistry

When Humphry Davy, a British Chemist, electrolyzed molten potassium hydroxide in 1807 to extract first regarding the alkali metals, Davy obtained such acclaim for his extraction of these metals from their salts that the following rhyme was written about him by E. Bentley; Sir Humphry Davy Abominated gravy Lived within the odium Of possessing discovered Sodium When Napoleon, the then French ruler, came to have structure of atom this news, he became very angry as to howcome the French chemists had not been first to do this. Interestingly, it was a coincidence that Napoleon's dream was fulfilled in 1939 when none fewer than a French chemist, Marguerite Perry, not only isolated the alkali metal that exists only as radioactive isotopes, but also named it Francium subsequent to his native country, France, and consoled the soul regarding the then deceased emperor. If we ponder related to the the past of most the underlying basis and the controversies behind names and symbols of some regarding the chemical elements, the facts and figures themselves shall speak related to the factuality and the reality. Within the early days of chemistry a scientist who happened to discover an special element, had the honor of naming it too.

But now discoverers or researchers are compulsory to submit their choices for a name to an worldwide Scientific Body called the Worldwide Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, IUPAC, to hold an special element properly named and placed on the periodic table due to contradictory claims of active studies groups and tug of war between them for the sake of getting mileage and recognition out of their claimed contributions, if any. The Worldwide Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry IUPAC is an worldwide non-governmental organization established in 1919 devoted to the advancement of chemistry. It is most well known as the recognized authority in developing standards for the naming regarding the chemical elements and their compounds, through its Interdivisional Committee on Nomenclature and Symbols IUPAC nomenclature. It is a member regarding the Worldwide Council for Science ICSU. In addition to nomenclature guidelines, the IUPAC sets standards for worldwide spelling within the function of a dispute; for example, it ruled that worldwide aluminium is preferable to the American aluminum and American sulfur is preferable to the British sulphur.

As researchers continue to discover elements and expand the periodic table, the job of deciding on a name and symbol is becoming not only an increasingly complex task but also a sensitive issue. The convention that an element be named by its discoverer s, resulted in a nationalistic dispute between laboratories attempting to synthesize the elements first, thus earning naming rights for possessing discovered them. Therefore, in this context discovery is synonymous with first synthesis. The controversy arose when multiple groups claimed to have discovered the similar to elements. Usually the Russians were first to make the claim, and the Americans should dispute, claiming that the studies should not be independently verified.

The 4 groups which were involved within the conflict over element naming were: An American team at Lawrence Berkeley Science department A Russian team at Joint Institute for Nuclear Studies in Dubna A German team at the Gesellschaft fr Schwerionenforschung GSI in Darmstadt The IUPAC Commission on Nomenclature of Inorganic Chemistry, which introduced its own proposal to the IUPAC General Assembly. While the preferred names for the elements by the American team for elements possessing atomic numbers: 104, 105, and 106, were: rutherfordium, hafnium, and seaborgium respectively, the preferred names for the elements possessing atomic numbers: 104 and 105 by the Russian team were: kurchatovium, and nielsbohrium respectively. Subsequently the preferred names for the elements possessing atomic numbers: 107, 108, and 109, by the German team were: nielsbohrium, hassium, and meitnerium. As per IUPAC proposal element 104 was to be named subsequent to Igor Kurchatov, father regarding the Russian atomic bomb, and this was the obvious reason that the name was objectionable to the Americans. The American name to 106 was objectionable to some due to the fact that Glenn T.

Seaborg was still alive and hence his name should not be used for an element in accordance with the IUPAC rules. While it is commonly stated that Seaborgium is the only element to have been named subsequent to a living person, this is not entirely true as most einsteinium and fermium were proposed as names of new elements discovered by Albert Ghiorso, Seaborg and the other American co-discoverers of those elements while Enrico Fermi and Albert Einstein were still living. However, the discovery of these elements and their names were kept secret below Cold War era nuclear secrecy rules, and thus the names should not grow to known neither to the public or the broader scientific community until subsequent to the deaths of most Fermi and Einstein. In 1994, the IUPAC Commission on Nomenclature of Inorganic Chemistry proposed the names: dubnium, joliotium, rutherfordium, bohrium, hahnium, and meitnerium for elements possessing atomic numbers:104,105, 106, 107,108, and109 respectively in an attempt to resolve the dispute by replacing the name for 104 with one honoring the Dubna studies center, and not naming 106 subsequent to Seaborg. However, this solution drew objections from the American Chemical Society ACS on the grounds that the right regarding the American team to propose the name for element 106 was not in question and that team should have the right to name the element whatever it wanted to.

Indeed, below the highest many compromising intentions, IUPAC decided that the credit for the discovery of element 106 should be shared between most Berkeley and Dubna but the Dubna team did not oblige IUPAC by coming forward with a name for this element. In addition, provided that many American books had already used Rutherfordium and Hahnium for 104 and 105, the ACS objected to those names being used for other elements. Seaborg commented wryly at a talk in 1995 that There was some reluctance on the component regarding the Commission for Nomenclature of Inorganic Chemistry regarding the Worldwide Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry to accept the name subsequent to me due to the fact that I'm still alive and they can prove it, they say. Finally in 1997, the names agreed upon on the 39th IUPAC General Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland, were: 104 - rutherfordium; 105 - dubnium; 106 - seaborgium; 107 - bohrium; 108 - hassium, and 109 - meitnerium. Seaborg died, still disputing the name change for At.

105 and adamant about it remaining known as Hahnium. His reason concerning Dubna in Russia was his belief that they had created a false claim about discovering the element for which they had been credited. Interestingly and understably when the Dubna team finally did release some more data on the experiment, Seaborg was quick to claim that it was a misreading regarding the decay pattern of their product. Even then, the Dubna team still refused to remove their claim. Some people within the Berkeley team and some others still refer to it as Hahnium.

The list of chemical elements named subsequent to people with symbol and atomic numbers provided in brackets are as: bohrium Bh, 107 in recognition of Niels Bohr; curium Cm, 96 in recognition of Pierre and Marie Curie; einsteinium Es, 99 in recognition of Albert Einstein; fermium Fm, 100 in recognition of Enrico Fermi; gallium Ga, 31 , consequently named subsequent to Gallia Latin for France, the discoverer regarding the metal Lecoq de Boisbaudran subtly attached an association with his name. Lecoq rooster in Latin is gallus; lawrencium Lr, 103 in recognition of Ernest Lawrence; meitnerium Mt, 109 in recognition of Lise Meitner; mendelevium Md, 101 in recognition of Dmitri Mendeleev; nobelium No, 102 in recognition of Alfred Nobel; roentgenium Rg, 111 in recognition of Wilhelm Roentgen; rutherfordium Rf, 104 in recognition of Ernest Rutherford, and seaborgium Sg, 106 in recognition of Glenn T. The element naming controversy that surrounded elements 104 to 109 saw 3 distant names derived from people gain partial acceptance. Neither was or is accepted by IUPAC. hahnium Hh, 105 in recognition of Otto Hahn, now known as dubnium, and kurchatovium Ku, 104 in recognition of Igor Kurchatov, now known as rutherfordium.

The elements named subsequent to mythical characters are: niobium Nb, 41 for Niobe, a mortal woman in Greek mythology; promethium Pm, 61 for Prometheus, a Titan from Greek mythology; tantalum Ta, 73 for Tantalus, from Greek mythology; thorium Th, 90 for Thor, the Norse the god of thunder; titanium Ti, 22 for the Titans, from Greek mythology, and vanadium V, 23 for Scandinavian goddess Vanadis Freyja. Many chemical elements are named subsequent to astronomical bodies which are named subsequent to Greek or Roman deities. It is interesting to note that Gadolinium Gd, 64 has got its name from the mineral gadolinite, which in turn is named subsequent to the Finnish chemist and geologist Johan Gadolin and Samarium Sm, 62 is believed to be named subsequent to the mineral samarskite which in turn is named subsequent to Vasili Samarsky-Bykhovets, a Russian mine official. Many elements have been named subsequent to locations such as: americium for the Americas; berkelium for the village of Berkeley, California, home regarding the University of California; californium for most the state of California and University of California, Berkeley; copper is probably named subsequent to Cyprus; darmstadtium for Darmstadt, Germany; dubnium for Dubna, Russia; erbium for Ytterby, Sweden; europium for Europe; francium for France; gallium for Gallia, Latin for France Frenchman Lecoq de Boisbaudran, who was the discoverer regarding the metal, named it subsequent to his place and also subtly for himself. Lecoq rooster in Latin is gallus? germanium for Germany; hafnium for Hafnia, Latin for Copenhagen; hassium for Hesse, Germany; holmium for Holmia, Latin for Stockholm; lutetium for Lutetia, Latin for Paris; magnesium for Magnesia, Thessaly, Greece; polonium for Poland; rhenium for Rhenus, Latin for Rhine; ruthenium for Ruthenia, Latin for Rus' Russia, Ukraine and Belarus? scandium for Scandia, Latin for Scandinavia; strontium for Strontian, Scotland; terbium for Ytterby, Sweden; thulium for Thule, a mythical lake within the distant north, perhaps Scandinavia; ytterbium repeatedly for Ytterby, Sweden, and yttrium still repeatedly for the similar to Ytterby, Sweden.

It is worth noting that 4 elements namely: Erbium, Terbium, Ytterbium and Yttrium, have been named subsequent to Ytterby, a tiny location in Sweden. While concluding this wright up it should be added that some elements have been named subsequent to astronomical objects too, for example, cerium for Ceres; helium for Helios, the Greek name for the Sun; neptunium for Neptune; palladium for Pallas; plutonium for Pluto; selenium for Selene, the Greek name for the Moon; tellurium for Tellus, the Latin name for the Earth; uranium for Uranus, and mercury for Mercury, which was itself named subsequent to the Roman the god Mercury.