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Letter: Elementology

Published 21 October 2009

From Philip Stewart

Copernicus was a great scientist and should be commemorated, though Aristarchus of Samos came up with the heliocentric theory 17 centuries earlier. But it seems perverse to name element 112 after Copernicus when there are contributors to the periodic system who have not yet been honoured (25 July, p 7).

Bars Hill, Oxfordshire, UK

Issue no. 2731 published 24 October 2009

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