Which element with atomic number 104 is named after Ernest Rutherford?

Which element with atomic number 104 is named after Ernest Rutherford? Rutherfordium is the answer. It is a synthetic, radioactive element with the symbol Rf and atomic number 104.

Rutherfordium honours Ernest Rutherford, the New Zealand-born physicist whose work helped establish the nuclear structure of atoms and led to the discovery of the atomic nucleus. The element belongs to group 4 and is placed beneath hafnium in the periodic table, so chemists expect it to behave as a very heavy relative of hafnium and zirconium.

Only tiny amounts of rutherfordium have ever been made, because it does not occur naturally and must be produced in particle accelerators. Its atoms decay quickly; the most stable known isotope, rutherfordium-267, has a half-life of roughly 48 minutes. As a result, many of its physical properties remain predictions rather than measurements from a visible sample.

The naming history was unusually contentious. Scientists at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory both claimed priority for its discovery, and the element temporarily carried proposed names during the dispute. IUPAC formally established “rutherfordium” in 1997.