hassium

(hasē əm)

noun

a radioactive chemical element with a very short half-life: a transactinide produced by bombarding lead with high-energy nuclear particles: symbol, Hs: at. no., 108

Origin: ModL, after the L name for Hesse, where new elements were created in a nuclear physics laboratory + -ium

See hassium in American Heritage Dictionary 4

noun Symbol Hs
An artificially produced radioactive element with atomic number 108 whose most long-lived isotopes have mass numbers of 264 and 265 with half-lives of 0.08 milliseconds and 2 milliseconds, respectively. Also called unniloctium. See Table at element.

Origin:

Origin: From Medieval Latin Hassia, Hesse (German state containing Darmstadt, where the element was first synthesized)

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