Q 01/05

Fleeing Nazi Germany in 1938, meitnerium's namesake Lise Meitner was handed which heirloom by Otto Hahn for emergencies?

A) A gold pocket watch

B) A diamond ring

C) A pearl necklace

D) A silver locket

Answer · why

B) A diamond ring

A diamond ring inherited from Otto Hahn's mother went with her in case of emergency. Apart from that she crossed the border with just 10 marks in her ...

Q 02/05

How many atoms of meitnerium did its German discoverers detect in the experiment that first created the element?

A) Just one

B) About fifty

C) A few thousand

D) Ten million

Answer · why

A) Just one

Just one atom appeared after a week of bombardment, yet that lone sighting was enough to claim a new element. By 1997 the same laboratory had added on...

Q 03/05

Lise Meitner, the physicist honoured by meitnerium, was nominated 49 times for which honour without ever winning it?

A) The Fields Medal

B) The Copley Medal

C) The Nobel Prize

D) The Wolf Prize

Answer · why

C) The Nobel Prize

The Nobel Prize for the discovery she helped explain went to Otto Hahn alone in 1944. Her 49 nominations were split between chemistry, with 19, and ph...

Q 04/05

Meitnerium is the only element named solely after a real woman, because which element honours a married couple instead?

A) Samarium

B) Gadolinium

C) Lawrencium

D) Curium

Answer · why

D) Curium

Curium honours Marie Curie together with her husband, so she shares the credit. That leaves Lise Meitner as the only real woman with an element to her...

Q 05/05

Even the longest-lived confirmed form of meitnerium, known as meitnerium-278, lasts roughly how long before it decays?

A) A few seconds

B) A few hours

C) A few months

D) A few centuries

Answer · why

A) A few seconds

A few seconds is the best it manages before half of any sample has vanished. The very first atom of the element, a lighter form, lasted about five mil...