IUPAC/IUPAP Committee Mediates Custody Battle Over Heavy Elements

Unlike babies, which are usually named at birth, a number of heavy elements have remained anonymous even though some are nearly 30 years old. These nameless orphans have been the objects of bitter custody battles: Three major research groups—located at the University of California at Berkeley, the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia, and the Laboratory for Heavy Ion Research (GSI) in Darmstadt, Germany—have competed intensely for years to produce the heavy elements and have filed conflicting claims for discovery. But given the difficult nature of the experiments on such short‐lived isotopes, it hasn't always been clear which group has really produced a given element