Lord Rutherford
There has been some controversy over the discovery of Rutherfordium. In the 1960s, small amounts of Rutherfordium were produced in laboratories in the former Soviet Union and in California.
Rutherfordium is a synthetic (i.e. man-made) radioactive metal created by bombarding a plutonium-242 target with neon-22 ions and then separating the reaction products by gradient thermochromatography after conversion to chlorides by interaction with ZrCl4. However, as Rutherfordium is rather harmful due to its levels of radioactivity, it's probably NOT a good idea to try making this at home.
It has only been produced in minuscule amounts and has a very short life-span of around 1½ hours (but hopefully this cache will last longer).
The priority of the discovery and therefore the naming of the element was disputed between Soviet and American scientists.
In 1992, the (somewhat impressively named) IUPAC/IUPAP Transfermium Working Group (TWG) assessed the claims of discovery and concluded that both teams provided contemporaneous evidence to the synthesis of element 104 and that credit should be shared between the two groups. The American group wrote a scathing response to the findings of the TWG, stating that they had given too much emphasis on the results from the Russian group. In particular they pointed out that the Russian group had altered the details of their claims several times over a period of 20 years, a fact that the Russian team does not deny. They also stressed that the TWG had given too much credence to the chemistry experiments performed by the Russians and accused the TWG of not having appropriately qualified personnel on the committee.
The TWG responded by saying that this was not the case and having assessed each point raised by the American group said that they found no reason to alter their conclusion regarding priority of discovery.
As a consequence of the initial competing claims of discovery, an element naming controversy arose. Since the Soviets claimed to have first detected the new element they suggested the name kurchatovium, Ku, in honour of Igor Kurchatov (1903–1960), former head of Soviet nuclear research. This name had been used in books of the Soviet Bloc as the official name of the element.
The Americans, however, proposed Rutherfordium (Rf) for the new element to honour Ernest Rutherford. The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) adopted unnilquadium, Unq, as a temporary, systematic element name, derived from the Latin names for digits 1, 0, and 4. In 1994, IUPAC suggested the name Dubnium (named after the town of Dubna in Russia where the Russians had conducted their experiments) to be used since Rutherfordium was suggested for element 106 and IUPAC felt that the Russian team should be rightly recognized for their contributions. However, there was still a dispute over the names of elements 104–107.
In 1997 the teams involved resolved the dispute and adopted the current name Rutherfordium. The name Dubnium was given to element 105 at the same time.
Gosh. The cut-throat world of element naming, eh?
Whilst we're sure this is all very interesting, we know you really just want to be in your element and get on with finding the cache, so check the hints if you need. No need to worry - the container is not made of Rutherfordium and so is quite safe to handle.
The property where the cache is hidden is a dentist and so is more likely to be occupied during working hours. It is also on a popular school walk route so, again, time your visit with care.
The cache can be obtained from the pavement side, so there is no need to cross onto the property itself.
By the way… If you are travelling through the region and want to find out a little more about Ernest Rutherford, be sure to stop off in Brightwater (20 mins / 20 km south of Nelson on SH6 towards Murchison) at the Lord Rutherford Memorial where you can have a hunt for Monument (GC6713) and Quantum Leap (GC3DACW) plus more, and also read lots more about Ernest Rutherford.
Oh, and one last fact… Ernest Rutherford's parents (James and Martha) emigrated to New Zealand from Essex in the UK, much like we (MSEBN) did!