Ever since the Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev published a version of the periodic table in 1869, it has continued to evolve to reflect new discoveries in chemistry and physics. All 118 known elements are included, organized in rows (called periods) and columns (called groups). Each element has a shortened name, or symbol, which is either two letters or one.
The scientist or group that discovers or creates a new element has the honor of proposing a new name, though it must follow specific guidelines. The name might refer to a property of the element, a place, a scientist, a mythological character, an astronomical object, or a mineral.
For example, iodine (I), which is violet when pure, was initially called “iode,” a short form of the Greek word for “violet colored.” It was first isolated from seaweed in 1811 and is now used as a common additive in table salt to help prevent thyroid problems and other illnesses.
Promethium (Pm), discovered as a byproduct of uranium fission in a nuclear reactor, was named after the Greek god Prometheus, who stole fire from the mightiest god, Zeus. The scientists saw nuclear science as a form of stealing the power of the sun.
From Continents to Towns
Nuclear science has produced several elements. In 1944, a team of scientists led by Glenn Seaborg produced the element americium (Am) by bombarding plutonium with neutrons in a nuclear reactor. It was related to another element, europium (Eu), discovered by a French chemist, so the scientists decided to follow the pattern and also name americium after the continent where it was discovered.
But the locations inspiring element names are usually far more specific. Berkelium (Bk) was created in Seaborg’s lab in 1949 at the University of California in Berkeley. The next year, the lab created an element named californium (Cf).
Before elements were synthesized in laboratories, an element might be named after the discovery site of the mineral from which it would later be isolated. Magnesium (Mg), for example, is named for Magnesia, an area of Greece where the mineral magnesia alba was first discovered. Similarly, yttrium (Y) and ytterbium (Yb) are named for a quarry near the town of Ytterby, Sweden, where a chemist discovered the mineral gadolinite, which contains those elements.
The periodic table includes names drawn from many regions, countries, provinces and cities: thulium (for Thule, the earliest name for Scandinavia), francium (France), polonium (Poland), scandium (Scandinavia), germanium (Germany), darmstadtium (Darmstadt, Germany), dubnium (Dubna, Russia), and rhenium (Rhine, a province of Germany).
Honoring Great Scientists
Nineteen of the elements are named after scientists, but not necessarily the scientists who discovered them. When seaborgium (Sg) was created in 1974, Seaborg became the only person for whom a chemical element was named during his lifetime.
Albert Einstein did not synthesize einsteinium (Es), which was created by the Berkeley team in 1952, but his insights led to nuclear science, and in turn the synthesis of elements. Curium (Cm) was also created by the Berkeley team, and it honors Marie and Pierre Curie, the husband-and-wife team who discovered radium (Ra). Marie chose the latter name, the Latin word for “ray.”
Bonus trivia: Only three element names begin with two vowels — iodine, einsteinium, and europium.
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