Template:Did you know nominations/Mendelevium


 * The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as |this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by 97198 (talk) 05:59, 13 September 2014 (UTC)

Mendelevium

 * ... that the discoverers of mendelevium had to seek the permission of the government of the United States to name it after Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev, father of the periodic table?.
 * ALT1: ... that the discoverers of mendelevium had to seek the permission of the government of the United States to name it?
 * This one would have no other links, and would leave more for the article to explain. Double sharp (talk) 12:57, 7 August 2014 (UTC)

Improved to Good Article status by Double sharp (talk). Self nominated at 12:54, 7 August 2014 (UTC).
 * Hold it. Discoverers don't name elements, and the US Govt doesn't either -- IUPAC does, though the discover's proposed name is no doubt given great weight. Without question what happened is that there was an internal political struggle as to whether the discovers, being employees of the US Govt (or working under US Govt contracts, or whatever) would be allowed to propose that name in their official capacity. The hooks say something quite different and I've struck them. Beyond that I'd like to see a source beyond the personal reminiscence 50 years later of one of the discovers for the details of what happened. EEng (talk) 22:47, 10 August 2014 (UTC) P.S.  would be great for the article if you could find a link to the video (which I couldn't).
 * For elements up to 101 it's commonly written as if the discoverers named it, because their names got accepted immediately without question, e.g. for Es and Fm, Ghiorso later reminisced "A natural choice that was strongly supported by everyone was einsteinium for element 99 and fermium for element 100, and I had the honor of announcing this selection at the Geneva International Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy in 1955.". All IUPAC apparently did there was to change element 99's symbol from E to Es. In fact this sort of thing was done up to element 103, which the Dubna group later characterized as being hasty (and I agree with them). Nevertheless, to make it 100% clear that this was a proposal, how about:
 * ALT2: ... that the discoverers of mendelevium had to seek the permission of the United States government to propose it be named after Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev, father of the periodic table?
 * I added another quote from Seaborg about the internal political struggle. Double sharp (talk) 05:51, 11 August 2014 (UTC)
 * I think that's a lot better, thanks for understanding. I've unlinked govt of the US. About 1992 I came around a corner one day in Latimer Hall and ran into (and I mean into) Glenn Seaborg. He was a really, really big man! EEng (talk) 06:08, 11 August 2014 (UTC)
 * That must have been really cool, to meet him in that manner! Now I'm curious: what happened next? Double sharp (talk) 18:45, 11 August 2014 (UTC)
 * He took a portable cyclotron from his pocket and irradiated me with a beam of antiprotons. EEng (talk) 18:53, 11 August 2014 (UTC)
 * LOL. That must have been an interesting experience! :-P Double sharp (talk) 19:33, 11 August 2014 (UTC)
 * Honestly I don't remember much more except that I said, "Oh, Professor Seaborg [mumble, something]"; I recognized him because I'd seem him give a talk maybe 20 years before. Fact is that in the rarefied circles in which I move I'm used to meeting heads of state, captains of industry, and giants of intellect, so it's not such a big deal unless you can actually sit and talk with them. By complete chance I had lunch once with Richard Doll and that was a really interesting conversation. EEng (talk) 20:20, 11 August 2014 (UTC) p.s. My point about Doll is that he's someone most people have never heard of, but I'd much rather have a talk with him than with a lot of famous bores I've met.

Review needed. EEng (talk) 19:41, 16 August 2014 (UTC)
 * Symbol question.svg New enough (promoted to Good Article status on August 7, 2014), long enough (9,631 characters). No QPQ done. Fully referenced but Reference 20 is a bare URL. (Rule D3). Hook verified against source. Hawkeye7 (talk) 22:00, 6 September 2014 (UTC)
 * Fixed: ref 20 is no longer a bare URL. Double sharp (talk) 05:04, 7 September 2014 (UTC)
 * Symbol confirmed.svg Good to go then! Hawkeye7 (talk) 20:23, 7 September 2014 (UTC)
 * This article was created by Malcolm Farmer on March 21, 2001. If it runs, it will become the oldest article to ever appear at DYK! Hawkeye7 (talk) 22:00, 6 September 2014 (UTC)