Monday, October 07, 2019

Nobel Week 2019

I do love Nobel week. It's like the playoffs for nerds. Speaking of that, I missed blogging about the updated names to the periodic table. For a long time, we had cool latin U-names for 111-118, but they've been given names. See below
  • Ununbium , [Uub], (112) = Coper­nicium (Cn)
  • Ununhexium , [Uuh], (116) = Liver­morium (Lv
  • Ununoctium , [Uuo], (118) = Oga­nesson (Og)
  • Ununpentium , [Uup], (115) = Moscov­ium (Mc)
  • Ununquadium , [Uuq], (114) = Flerov­ium (Fl)
  • Ununseptium , [Uus], (117) = Tenness­ine (Ts)
  • Ununtrium , [Uut], (113) = Nihon­ium (Nh
  • Ununium , [Uuu], (111) = Roent­genium (Rg)
Liver­morium may now be the funniest name. It's named for the lab, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, which in turn is named for the town of Livermore, CA which was named after some random dude Livermore.

Part of my investigation is to find out how many of the people the elements are named after are Jewish (pride can be a bad or a good thing). Einsteinium is the only one I knew about, but maybe the new ones too, mayhap perchance.

So which ones are named after people?  Looking at this list, I see they link to an awesome Wiki resource page which does much of the work for me!

Here's the people the elements are named for; almost by sociological definition, any scientist before the 20th century wasn't Jewish because we were denied access to education and major professions. Marie Curie was a Catholic agnostic, the 2 recent Russians -- Georgy Flyorov, Yuri Oganessian -- could be but are it's unlikely, while Ernest Lawrence & Glenn T. Seaborg & Neils Bohr were Scandanavian (so most likely christian), but now I see, according to Wiki, that while Neils Bohr's father was Christian Bohr, his mother (Ellen Adler) was Jewish:
Bohr was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, on 7 October 1885, the second of three children of Christian Bohr, a professor of physiology at the University of Copenhagen, and Ellen Adler Bohr, who came from a wealthy Danish Jewish family prominent in banking and parliamentary circles.
Oh, and #109 Meitnerium is another element named for a woman: Lise Meitner, who is Jewish. A Jewish woman on the periodic table! How did I miss that?!
She was born Elise Meitner on 7 November 1878 into a Jewish upper-middle-class family in Vienna, 2nd district (Leopoldstadt), the third of eight children. Her father Philipp Meitner was one of the first Jewish lawyers in Austria. ... As an adult, she converted to Christianity, following Lutheranism, and was baptized in 1908.
So, there are 3: Einstein, Bohr, and Meitner.  But Einstein is the only one who stayed Jewish.

Postscript:

For thoroughness sake, would it be terribly wrong to just cut and paste the list? I'm a bad boy.
ElementIndividual(s)
ZNameSymbolDiscoveryImmediate namesakeNameSpecialtyLifespanNationality
62SamariumSm1879the mineral samarskite Mining engineer1803–1870Russian
64GadoliniumGd1886the mineral gadolinite Scientist1760–1852Finnish
95AmericiumAm1944the continents of the Americas Explorer1454–1512Italian
96CuriumCm1944 Scientist
Scientist
1867–1934
1859–1906
Polish-French
French
97BerkeliumBk1949the city Berkeley, California Philosopher1685–1753Irish
99EinsteiniumEs1952 Scientist1879–1955German-Swiss
100FermiumFm1952 Scientist1901–1954Italian-American
101MendeleviumMd1955 Scientist1834–1907Russian
102NobeliumNo1958 Scientist1833–1896Swedish
103LawrenciumLr1961 Scientist1901–1958American
104RutherfordiumRf1964 Scientist1871–1937New Zealand-British
106SeaborgiumSg1974 Scientist1912–1999American
107BohriumBh1981 Scientist1885–1962Danish
109MeitneriumMt1982 Scientist1878–1968Austrian-Swedish
111RoentgeniumRg1994 Scientist1845–1923German
112CoperniciumCn1996 Scientist1473–1543Polish-German
114FleroviumFl1998 Scientist1913–1990Russian
116LivermoriumLv2000the city Livermore, California and
the Lawrence Livermore Lab[2]
Land owner1799–1858English-Mexican
118OganessonOg2002 Scientist1933–Russian

Slichot, Some Thoughts

We're nearing the end of the Slichot period of Elul-Tishrei 5779-5780. Some quick thoughts:


  1. For me, I share a brotherhood with those who've have to lead slichot. The stress is enormous because the words are purposeful tongue-twisters, the text is said only one day a year, and it needs to be done super quickly. Bravo to you, my brothers. I feel your pain
  2. It's hilarious that the first slicha is often on theme of "it's so early in the morning!"
  3. Thank God for the Artscroll. I can complain about a number of their choices, but you need to have lived in a world without them to know why they've transformed the facility of Jewish prayer in the world