Deuterium v. Diplogen

Last week U. S. chemists and physicists girded up their loins for war on their British colleagues. A U. S. discoverer's right to name his own discovery had been challenged from abroad. Scientific relations between the two countries were described as "very tense." Professor Harold Clayton Urey* of Columbia University has baptized the isotope of heavy hydrogen he discovered two years ago deuterium (Greek deuteros, second). He wants deuteron or deuton to be the name of its atomic nucleus. Discussing the matter last December before the Royal Society, Lord Rutherford, head of Cambridge University's Cavendish Laboratory, said: "While we all realize that the first discoverer has a strong claim in suggesting an appropriate name ...[I and my colleagues favor] the name diplogen (Greek diploos, double) for heavy hydrogen, and diplon for the nucleus." Last fortnight in the British scientific journal Nature was printed a letter entitled "Chemical Separation of Diplogen from Hydrogen." Showing throughout no sign of recognizing any other nomenclature, it presaged a general British plump for the Rutherford suggestions. Meanwhile Professor Urey and the two men who helped him discover heavy hydrogen had dispatched to Nature a letter with barbs under the bland velvet of its phrasing. The three discoverers stated that they had long ago considered and discarded the name diplogen. Reason: "The compound NH1H2/2 would be called di-diplogen mono-hydrogen nitride. . . . Unfortunate is the repetition of the syllable 'di.' . . . "The [British] objection to ... deuterium and deuton seems to be founded upon the possibility of confusing the word neutron and the name deuton. It is interesting indeed that American scientific workers do not have any such difficulty." Not every Briton favored the Rutherford suggestions. Wrote Henry Edward Armstrong, Ph. D., LL. D., D. Sc., F. R. S., retired chemistry professor, "Chemists cannot admit such fearsome wild fowl as diplogen."

* To Discoverer Urey last week was awarded the Willard Gibbs medal, top U. S. chemical kudos, bestowed annually by the American Chemical Society on a scientist in any country "whose work has received world-wide recognition."

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