Element 105: Flerov reiterates Dubna priority claim

The priority dispute over who first made element 105 continues. Georgi N. Flerov, director of the laboratory of nuclear reactions at Dubna, has pointed out to PHYSICS TODAY that results of his new experiment on element 105 appeared in February in a Dubna publication. He noted that his publication preceded both the announcement made by Albert Ghiorso and his collaborators and a statement issued by the AEC on 28 April that the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory group had discovered element 105 and was naming it “hahnium.” Ghiorso had told a press conference at the April APS meeting that he believed Flerov’s first experiment on element 105 (PHYSICS TODAY, December 1967, page 61) was wrong but not necessarily the second experiment. He remarked that because the Soviet group did not propose a name they apparently did not feel their evidence was very strong.

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