Rg        

Roentgenium (Eka-Gold)

Radioactive metal. It was discovered in 1994 by the group of Peter Armbruster and Gottfried Münzenberg at the Institute GSI in Darmstadt, Germany. The discovery took place shortly before the Christmas holidays, while the scientists were still dealing with the press after the discovery of the element No. 110, i.e., Darmstadtium [1]. Only three atoms of element No. 111 were observed by shooting nickel at a target of bismuth. The element was named after Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen, the discoverer of X-rays.

The first observed isotope had a half-life of 1.5 milliseconds. Later on, isotopes with 3.6 seconds half-life were produced, which is a sufficiently long time to perform chemical experiments. It was found that, as predicted by the periodic table, roentgenium is similar to gold, thus dissolving in cyanides and producing roentgenides, the latter having similar properties as aurides, i.e. gold salts [2].

[1] D. C. Hoffman et al., The Transuranium People, Imperial College Press, 2000.

[2] S. Hofmann, On Beyond Uranium, Taylor and Francis, 2002.

Darmstadt,
southern Germany:
Nickel ions are shot
at a target of Lead.
Eka-Platinum
is observed
for the first time ever.
Journalists. Champagne.
Christmas is getting closer.
Some want, before leaving,
to exchange the Lead
for Bismuth.
Others yearn
to finally
relax.

Three atoms
similar to gold,
three Magi
come
into view.