"Discovering" new elements

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Four new elements in the periodic table have been "discovered."

But is "discovery" the right word here? Everyone already knew what these elements would be. And they weren't found in Antartica or a meteor or a distant star: they were deliberately created in a lab. It seems to me that "made" would be a more accurate description of what happened here.

Comments

  1. Lord1:14 PM

    Or discover how to make? Many possibilities but demonstrating success is a large part of it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bob Murphy12:48 PM

    I didn't click through to the news stories, but I also thought it was weird that people were saying "discovered."

    ReplyDelete

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