Bizarre elements: a timeline

The periodic table has experienced many revisions over time as new elements have been discovered and the methods of organizing them have been solidified. Sometimes when scientists tried to fill in gaps where missing elements were predicted to reside in the periodic table, or when they made even the smallest of errors in their experiments, they came up with discoveries—often fabricated or misconstrued—that are so bizarre they could have never actually found a home in our current version of the periodic table.

In The Lost Elements: The Periodic Table’s Shadow Side, Marco Fontani, Mariagrazia Costa, and Mary Virginia Orna share many tales of scientists who introduced these bizarre elements to the scientific community. What follows are the stories of some of these elements.

Image Credit: “Autunite.” Photo by Tjflex2. CC by NC-ND 2.0 via Flickr.

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