The Great Element Naming Controversy
Abi Sutherland sends us to
Element naming controversy: Finally in 1997, the following names were agreed on the 39th IUPAC General Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland: 104 - rutherfordium; 105 - dubnium; 106 - seaborgium; 107 - bohrium; 108 - hassium; 109 - meitnerium.
In 1999, Glenn T. Seaborg died, still disputing the name change for #105 and adamant about it remaining known as hahnium. His reason concerning Dubna in Russia was that he believed that they had made a false claim about discovering the element for which they had been credited. When the Dubna group finally did release some additional data on the experiment, Seaborg claimed that it was a misreading of the decay pattern of their product. Even then, the Dubna group still refused to remove their claim. Some people in the Berkeley group and some others still refer to it as hahnium.
Huh. I had thought that they had taken Glenn Seaborg's name away from him--that all he was left with was a room in Berkeley's Faculty Club and the Lafayette Library. Now I feel better.
