Posted by: Lois Lindemann on: January 29th, 2009 
Posted in: 
Tags for this post: 
I am trying to write a book review, but for reasons best known to himself Mr TLC is distracting me. He is scrutinizing his periodic table postcard and quizzing me on the elements. I am doing moderately badly, which is disappointing really, because I used to know all of this stuff.
I finally come totally unstuck with Sg. I furtle around in my memory’s dusty corners, but find no trace of Sg anywhere.
I give up and ask Mr TLC what the answer is.
“Seaborgium,” he tells me, whilst adopting a kind of knowledgeable air.
“I’ve never heard of it.”
“It’s number 106,” I am informed by Mr TLC, who is now positively aglow with knowledgeableness.
106. I am out of touch. Last time I looked it was still mildly theoretical and going by the rather ugly monicker of unnilhexium.
Mr TLC proceeds to read out the names for elements one hundred and seven, eight, nine and ten. I think I need to read more. Or maybe just pay more attention to those freebie postcards that I bring home for Mr TLC.
I think you two should get out more! Quizzing each other on the periodic table is, well, quite sad… Mind you I doubt that there is much else to do of an evening in Sheffield!
Well from another Sheffielder who can’t resist a bit of periodic table talk…
Seborgium, a heavier homologue to tungsten with a half life of about 2 seconds…now that would be a short lived lightbulb. Even when I was at school (not that long ago) the names of 104-109 were disputed. We had a periodic table with the Berkley suggestions and the weird totally unmemorable systematic ones. Apparently it was solved as recently as 1997.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Element_naming_controversy