Ask A Scientist Chemistry Archive

Question:  How come the last 15 elements have prefixes instead of names?
corey, colleen, steve, steve
13
glen crest jr. high

Answer:
That depends on whose periodic table you look at.  The problem
is that traditionally, the person who discovers an element
gets to name it. Well, those last few elements were independently
discovered by workers in USA / western Europe and by workers in
the former Soviet Union / eastern Europe. And no one has been able
to accept who really discovered them first. So, an international
commission recommended that they just be named with prefixes.
But this recommendation has not been universally accepted.
 
This is my understanding of the situation, but I could be
slightly wrong on some of the details. Don't sue me please!
 
-dr topper