On the ontology of superheavy elements Kragh, Helge Stjernholm Published in: Substantia DOI: 10.13128/substantia-25 Publication date: 2017 Document version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Document license: CC BY Citation for published version (APA): Kragh, H. S. (2017). On the ontology of superheavy elements. Substantia, 1(2), 7-17. https://doi.org/10.13128/substantia-25 Download date: 24. sep.. 2021 Firenze University Press www.fupress.com/substantia Research Article On the Ontology of Superheavy Elements Citation: H. Kragh (2017) On the Ontology of Superheavy Elements. Helge Kragh Substantia 1(2): 7-17. doi: 10.13128/ substantia-25 Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Blegdamsvej 17, Copenhagen, Denmark E-mail:
[email protected] Copyright: © 2017 H. Kragh. This is an open access, peer-reviewed article published by Firenze University Press Abstract. The study of so-called superheavy elements with atomic numbers Z > 102 (http://www.fupress.com/substantia) has for several decades been a major research field in nuclear physics and chemistry. and distribuited under the terms of the Presently all elements up to and including Z = 118 have been discovered and assigned Creative Commons Attribution License, official names by IUPAC. To speak of “discovery” is however unfortunate since the ele- which permits unrestricted use, distri- ments are in reality produced, manufactured or created in the laboratory. They are not bution, and reproduction in any medi- found in nature. Moreover, it is not obvious that they exist in the normal sense of the um, provided the original author and source are credited.