This week, its all chemical elements
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Born on September 29, 1901, this scientist is referred to as the ‘architect of the nuclear age’. He won the Nobel Prize for induced radioactivity and even developed a model which describes fundamental interactions in nature. Element number 100 is named after him and is the heaviest element that can be formed by neutron bombardment of lighter elements which also means it is the last element that can be prepared in macroscopic quantities. Who was this scientist and what is the name of the element?
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Silvery blue metal Gallium is element 31. Alloys of it are used in thermometers as an environment-friendly alternative to mercury. It was discovered by Paul-Émile Lecoq in 1875. He named the element in honour of his home country, referring to its Latin name. Later it was claimed it was a sneaky pun as his name meant ‘Rooster’ in his mother tongue and ‘Gallus’ also meant rooster in Latin. Which country was he from and what is the Latin name for it?
3 / 10 |
Element 95 was first produced in 1944 in California by bombarding Plutonium with neutrons. It is a soft radioactive silvery metal. Since it was placed under ‘Europium’ it was given a certain name which refers to the continent it was found in. This continent itself is named after an Italian explorer and cartographer. Who was this navigator and what is the name of the element?
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Element number 96 is quite unique as it is the only element named after a couple and not one person. This element was first produced by bombarding uranium or plutonium with neutrons in nuclear reactors in 1944. It is used as a source of a-particles in space probes. The couple it is named after were known for their work on radioactivity with both of them having won multiple Nobel prizes between them. Who were these two legendary researchers and what is the name of the element?
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Element 102 is a synthetic element that can only be produced in particle accelerators. Many labs claimed they had discovered this element but eventually a Soviet team was credited. The name though was suggested by the Swedish team. It was chosen to commemorate a certain Swedish chemist, businessman and inventor whose name usually gets linked to people who discover new elements. Who is this person and what element is named after him?
6 / 10 |
Element 107 is a synthetic element not found in nature. It was first discovered by a team led by Yuri Oganessian in 1976. This element was named after a Danish physicist who developed a model of the atom and helped science understand quantum theory and won a Nobel Prize in 1922. Who was this scientist and what is the name of the element?
7 / 10 |
Element 112 is an extremely radioactive synthetic element created in 1996 by a laboratory in Germany. The lab decided to name after an astronomer ‘who changed our view of the world’. From the Renaissance-era his book 'On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres' triggered a scientific revolution. In 2010 on his 537th birth anniversary it was officially named in his honour and given the symbol ‘Cn’. Who was this astronomer and what is the element?
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Element 99 was discovered in the debris of the first hydrogen bomb explosion in 1952 and was consequently named after the most famous scientist of our times. Ironically this scientist was quite a pacifist and believed that wars stood in the way of human progress. He died in April 1955, and in August this new element was announced to the world. What is the name of the element?
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Element 101 is the first element that currently cannot be produced in macroscopic quantities through neutron bombardment of lighter elements. It is highly radioactive with the most stable isotope being one that has a half life of just 51 days. It was named after a Russian chemist who with incredible foresight came up with the periodic law and put the elements together in a certain fashion that allowed scientists to search for and discover new elements for more than 100 years after his death. Who was this chemist and what is the element?
10 / 10 |
Yuri Oganessian is the world’s leading researcher in superheavy chemical elements. As of September 29, 2019, he is the scientific leader of the Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions. He invented the method of cold fusion which played a vital role in the discoveries of superheavy elements. In 2002 a new element was synthesised has the highest atomic number and highest atomic mass of all known elements and in 2016 it was names as Oganesson. What does this make Yuri unique among the few people after whom elements are named?
Answer : The only living person now to have an element named after him.
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