Ausenium (
atomic symbol Ao) was the name assigned to the element with
atomic number
The atomic number or nuclear charge number (symbol ''Z'') of a chemical element is the charge number of an atomic nucleus. For ordinary nuclei, this is equal to the proton number (''n''p) or the number of protons found in the nucleus of ever ...
93, now known as
neptunium
Neptunium is a chemical element with the symbol Np and atomic number 93. A radioactive actinide metal, neptunium is the first transuranic element. Its position in the periodic table just after uranium, named after the planet Uranus, led to it bein ...
. It was named after a Greek name of Italy,
Ausonia.
The same team assigned the name
hesperium
Hesperium (or esperium; atomic symbol Es) was the name assigned to the element with atomic number 94, now known as plutonium.
It was named in Italian ''Esperio'' after a Greek name of Italy, Hesperia, "the land of the West".
The same team assigned ...
to element 94, after
Hesperia, a poetic name of Italy.
(Element 94 was later named
plutonium
Plutonium is a radioactive chemical element with the symbol Pu and atomic number 94. It is an actinide metal of silvery-gray appearance that tarnishes when exposed to air, and forms a dull coating when oxidized. The element normally exh ...
).
The discovery of the element, now discredited, was made by
Enrico Fermi
Enrico Fermi (; 29 September 1901 – 28 November 1954) was an Italian (later naturalized American) physicist and the creator of the world's first nuclear reactor, the Chicago Pile-1. He has been called the "architect of the nuclear age" an ...
and a team of scientists at the
University of Rome in 1934. In the same year
Ida Noddack
Ida Noddack (25 February 1896 – 24 September 1978), ''née'' Tacke, was a German chemist and physicist. In 1934 she was the first to mention the idea later named nuclear fission. With her husband - Walter Noddack - and Otto Berg she discov ...
had already presented alternative explanations for the experimental results of Fermi.
Following the discovery of
nuclear fission
Nuclear fission is a reaction in which the nucleus of an atom splits into two or more smaller nuclei. The fission process often produces gamma photons, and releases a very large amount of energy even by the energetic standards of radio ...
in 1938, it was realized that Fermi's discovery was actually a mixture of
barium
Barium is a chemical element with the symbol Ba and atomic number 56. It is the fifth element in group 2 and is a soft, silvery alkaline earth metal. Because of its high chemical reactivity, barium is never found in nature as a free element.
Th ...
,
krypton
Krypton (from grc, κρυπτός, translit=kryptos 'the hidden one') is a chemical element with the symbol Kr and atomic number 36. It is a colorless, odorless, tasteless noble gas that occurs in trace amounts in the atmosphere and is of ...
, and other elements. The actual element was discovered several years later, and assigned the name neptunium.
Fascist authorities wanted one of the elements to be named ''littorio'' after the Roman ''
lictor
A lictor (possibly from la, ligare, "to bind") was a Roman civil servant who was an attendant and bodyguard to a magistrate who held ''imperium''. Lictors are documented since the Roman Kingdom, and may have originated with the Etruscans.
Origi ...
es'' who carried the ''
fasces
Fasces ( ; ; a '' plurale tantum'', from the Latin word '' fascis'', meaning "bundle"; it, fascio littorio) is a bound bundle of wooden rods, sometimes including an axe (occasionally two axes) with its blade emerging. The fasces is an Italian sym ...
'', a symbol appropriated by Fascism.
References
{{Reflist
Element name etymologies Retrieved February 23, 2010.
Nobel Prize Presentation Speechgiven by Professor H. Pleijel, Chairman of the Nobel Committee for Physics on December 10, 1938
*Enrico Fermi
Artificial radioactivity produced by neutron bombardment Nobel Lecture, December 12, 1938.
1934 introductions
Science and technology in Italy
Neptunium
Misidentified chemical elements