Elementary disagreement. (criticism of Transfermium Working Group's report) (Comment)

Last year, an international panel of chemists and physicists reported their conclusions on the discovery of elements 101-110, known as the transfermium elements (C&I 1992, 553). This August, the three laboratories involved, including ours, responded to the report (C&I 1993, 568).

In our opinion, the report by the panel -- the Transfermium Working Group (TWG) -- is highly flawed. Much of the experimental evidence is basically chemical and its proper evaluation would have benefited from the presence of more nuclear chemists on the TWG (only two of its members were chemists, while seven were physicists). A careful study by three nuclear chemists led to dramatically different conclusions (Radiochimica Acta, 1987, 42, 57).

The TWG established at the beginning, in 1986, that its work should be divided into two phases: 'the establishment …