The recent naming of elements 110, 111, and 112 on the periodic table got me thinking. Not about chemistry, but about the history of other elemental labels.
Certain ones, like einsteinium and the new copernicium, are clearly namesakes (which the New York Times mistakenly capitalized). Other elements, like Americium, Berkelium, Californium are placesakes. But after the obvious origins are ticked off, logic behind the names for life’s building blocks get fuzzier, (unless you happen to know Sanskrit, Greek and Latin). I set out to find the stories behind the elemental names and while I was at it, I unearthed why some elements have seemingly unrelated symbols, e.g. Au for gold. Continue reading