For things that exist so fleetingly, the transfermium elements have caused an inordinate amount of trouble. The arguments over who discovered what - and so who has the privilege of naming the elements - have been rumbling on for years. This time last year, a group of eminent chemists and physicists pronounced its judgment on the issue. But such is the pace at which battles are fought in these arcane circles, it is only this week that the researchers publish their views on the verdict. They suggest that the fighting is not over yet.
The 'superheavy' or transfermium elements, with an atomic number above 100, are highly unstable, usually existing only briefly in particle accelerators or as theoretical species.
In the late 1950s, researchers at three centres, Dubna in Russia, Darmstadt in Germany and the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory in California, began to gather evidence for the existence of each element. ...
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