Nomenclature saga heralds difficult times for IUPAC

Next month, the International Union of Pure & Applied Chemistry will hold its 38th general assembly at the University of Surrey in Guildford, England. Some 700 chemists from about 45 countries will gather for a complex schedule of meetings of IUPAC's multifarious bodies. The program will include the annual meeting of the IUPAC Bureau, the union's highest authority below its council. Among the items on the agenda will be the Executive Committee's proposal to reconsider the adoption of names for transfermium elements 101 to 109 that were recommended by the Commission on Nomenclature of Inorganic Chemistry (CNIC) at the bureau meeting in Antwerp, Belgium, in September 1994 (C&EN, May 8, page 7). These names differed significantly from what the U.S. chemical community had expected and led to controversy and confusion. For example, element 104 is currently listed in different publications as rutherfordium, kurchatovium, unnilquadium, and dubnium. The bureau most likely will decide that the names ...