Thursday, September 17, 2026

Question: Two elements on the periodic table are named for California and for the Bay Area city where scientists created them a year apart in the late 1940s. Which two?

Answer: Berkelium and californium. Glenn Seaborg and his team at the lab now known as Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory made element 97 in late 1949 and named it for the city, then made element 98 in early 1950 and named it for the state. The same lab produced more than a dozen new elements between 1940 and 1974.