Word: tripleweight
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Physicists probing within the atom toward the ultimate constitution of matter already had their hands full with positive and negative electrons, neutrons (uncharged particles), protons (nuclei of hydrogen atoms), deuterons (nuclei of doubleweight hydrogen), tritons (nuclei of tripleweight hydrogen), alpha particles (nuclei of helium), and the theoretical but necessary neutrino (little neutron...
Like many another elderly and distinguished scientist, Britain's Lord Ernest Rutherford, great formulator of the atom's electrical structure, has a way of having his way. Few weeks ago he published an article in which he referred to the tripleweight atom of hydrogen, generally called tritium, as "triterium." When this verbal goblin reached the eye of Dr. Kenneth Claude Bailey, professor of physical chemistry and authority on chemical etymology at University of Dublin, Dr. Bailey promptly took pen in hand and wrote a letter of protest which appeared in Nature last week. Excerpt: "The word 'deuterium...
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