Talk:Synthetic element

Synthesis
The Synthetic element up to fermium can be produced by the neutron capture of lighter elements and subsequent and a subsequent beta decay. This process can either happen inside stars than it is called the s-process or it can happen as nuclear transmutation in nuclear fission for example nuclear reactors or nuclear bombs. The transfermium elements are produced by accelerating atoms and colliding them with a target material. The targets were heavy elements like actinides which were collided with light atoms like helium. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.61.155.241 (talk) 19:07, 1 March 2011 (UTC)

Disambiguation of synthetic
I'm kin'a spitballing (spitballing? spitballing?) here, but "synthetic element" is (tho IMO a standard term,) a metaphorical usage of the adjective — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jerzy (talk • contribs) 20:33, 20 October 2018 (UTC)

Terminology: create / discover
At the moment, the introductory section uses the term "creation" exclusively when describing new synthetic elements, while the History section uses the term "discovery" exclusively. It seems to me that one or the other should be changed so that a consistent term is used throughout the article. Specifically, I think that we should use the term "creation", because the new elements simply did not exist until that point. "Discovery" incorrectly implies that the element existed but people were unaware of it. I know that I could simply "be bold!" and make the change right now, but I'd prefer to wait a few days to see if anyone comments. --Keeves (talk) 10:05, 9 October 2020 (UTC)
 * Well at least the lighter ones probably did exist before thanks to the r-process: curium we know did. So it's more that they did not exist on Earth by the time humans were on the scene. But "creation" seems definitely fine anyway, so I've changed the "discovery" and related words in History to derivatives of "creation" and "synthesis". Thank you! Double sharp (talk) 16:32, 9 October 2020 (UTC)