Universitium ofium Californium Berkelium…?

 Picture 2013-07-30 at 9.55.10 AM

UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Labs have discovered a total of 22 elements on the periodic table.

Scientific American just recently published a great interactive version of the periodic table of elements.  When clicking on each element the user can learn obscure facts about each element’s discovery.  “Berkelium” reads:

In 1950 The New Yorker sarcastically remarked that Glenn T. Seaborg’s team had missed a chance to have four elements in a row named “universitium,” “ofium,” “californium” and “berkelium.” The team replied it did not want to risk naming the first two elements universitium and ofium lest the East Coast beat them to naming the next two “newium” and “yorkium.”

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