Chemical Elements and Their Discoverers Trivia Word Search

Swedish chemist Lars Fredrik Nilson discovered this element in 1879, confirming a gap Mendeleev had predicted in his table.

French chemist Bernard Courtois discovered this violet-vapor element in seaweed ash in 1811.

French chemist Eugene-Anatole Demarcay isolated this rare-earth element in 1901 and named it for the continent of Europe.

Scottish chemist Daniel Rutherford isolated this gas, which makes up about 78% of Earth's air, in 1772.

This Swedish chemist discovered silicon, selenium, thorium, and cerium, and single-handedly devised chemical symbol notation.

Finnish chemist Johan Gadolin identified this element in 1794 from a mineral found near a Swedish village.

Also discovered by Marignac, this rare-earth element was named after the same Swedish village as several others.

Swedish chemist Per Teodor Cleve discovered this element in 1879, naming it after Thule, an old name for Scandinavia.

This Polish-French scientist and her husband discovered both polonium and radium in 1898, sharing a Nobel Prize in Physics.

Element 117 is named after the U.S. state whose national laboratory and university helped create it in 2010.

This Austrian chemist split didymium in 1885, discovering praseodymium and neodymium.

Discovered by the same chemist as osmium in 1803, this hard, corrosion-resistant metal was named for the Greek word for 'rainbow.'

This glowing element was discovered in 1669 by a German alchemist who was busy boiling down evaporated urine.

English chemist Joseph Priestley is usually credited with independently isolating this life-sustaining gas in 1774.

British chemist William Crookes discovered this toxic metal in 1861 by its distinctive green spectral line.

French chemist Andre-Louis Debierne discovered this radioactive element in 1899 while studying uranium ore residue.

Also found in 1952 H-bomb debris, element 100 was named to honor this Italian-American physicist.

German physicist Friedrich Ernst Dorn discovered this radioactive gas in 1900, calling it 'radium emanation.'

German chemist Robert Bunsen, namesake of the famous lab burner, discovered this metal by its sky-blue spectral lines in 1860.

This reactive alkali metal, discovered by Humphry Davy in 1807, is essential for regulating fluid balance in cells.

This soft alkali metal, discovered in Swedish mineral samples by a chemist named Arfwedson in 1817, now powers rechargeable batteries.

German chemist Ferdinand Reich discovered this soft, silvery metal in 1863 by its brilliant blue spectral line.

Spanish brothers Juan Jose and Fausto Elhuyar isolated this dense metal, used in old light-bulb filaments, in 1783.

Element 115, first created in 2003, is named after the Russian capital region near its discovery lab.

English chemist William Wollaston discovered this silvery metal, prized in catalytic converters, within crude platinum ore in 1803.

Element 109 was named in 1997 to honor a physicist who helped explain nuclear fission but was denied a Nobel Prize.

Discovered by the Curies in 1898, this glowing radioactive element was once added to paint, toothpaste, and tonics.

This Swedish chemist first isolated molybdenum, a metal vital to high-strength steel alloys, in 1781.

Element 110 is named after the German city that is home to the lab where it was first created in 1994.

Swedish chemist Anders Ekeberg named this dense, corrosion-resistant metal after a figure condemned to eternal thirst.

English chemist Smithson Tennant discovered this extremely dense metal, named for the Greek word for 'smell,' in 1803.

One of four rare-earth elements Mosander discovered, this one takes its name from the same Swedish village as yttrium.

This noble gas, whose name comes from the Greek for 'hidden,' was discovered by Ramsay and Travers in 1898.

Swedish chemist Johan Gahn first isolated this metal, used to make steel harder, in 1774.

Physicists Dirk Coster and Georg de Hevesy discovered this metal in 1923, confirming a prediction by Niels Bohr.

Element 108 is named for the German state, called Hassia in Latin, that hosts the lab where it was created.

Another of Mosander's 1843 discoveries, this rare-earth element also takes its name from that same Swedish village.

Element 116 shares its name with a national laboratory in California that helped create it.

Discovered by Boisbaudran in 1879, this rare-earth element was named after the mineral samarskite.

French chemist Georges Urbain discovered this element in 1907, the last stable member of the rare-earth series.

Element 103 honors the American physicist who invented the cyclotron used to create many heavy elements.

Swedish chemist Georg Brandt isolated this blue-pigment metal from a mineral once blamed on mischievous mine spirits.

This metalloid, first isolated in 1808, is a key ingredient in fiberglass and heat-resistant glassware like Pyrex.

Found in the fallout of the first hydrogen bomb test in 1952, element 99 was named to honor this physicist.

This Polish-born chemist co-discovered brevium, later renamed protactinium, in 1913.

This brittle metalloid, discovered in 1823, is the main ingredient in computer chips and window glass.

French chemist Antoine Balard isolated this foul-smelling, reddish-brown liquid element from seawater in 1826.

Von Welsbach's other 1885 discovery, this rare-earth element's name means 'new twin' in Greek.

Isolated from sulfuric-acid factory residue in 1817, this element was named for the Greek word for 'moon.'

Discovered by Ramsay and Travers in 1898, this heavy noble gas is used in bright, high-intensity camera flashes.

This alkaline-earth metal, discovered by Humphry Davy in 1808, makes up most of the mineral content in bones and teeth.

This Scottish chemist discovered argon, neon, krypton, and xenon, earning a Nobel Prize for noble-gas research.

Discovered spectroscopically by Bunsen in 1861, this soft, silvery metal was named for the Latin word for 'deep red.'

Isolated by Per Teodor Cleve in 1879, this rare-earth element was named for Stockholm, using its Latin name, Holmia.

Element 118 is one of only two named for a scientist who was still _ _ _ _ _ _ when the name was approved.

Element 105 is named after the Russian town that hosts a major nuclear research institute.

Discovered in 1949, this element was named for the California city where its laboratory was located.

Element 114 is named after the Soviet physicist who founded the lab in Dubna where it was created.

This alkaline-earth metal, discovered by Humphry Davy in 1808, is vital for chlorophyll and photosynthesis.

This British chemist used electrolysis to discover several elements, including sodium and potassium, in 1807-08.

French chemist Paul-Emile _ _ _ _ _ de Boisbaudran discovered this metal in 1875, one Mendeleev had already predicted.

Discovered in Transylvanian gold ore in 1782, this element takes its name from the Latin word for 'earth.'

Discovered by Seaborg's team in 1944, this element was named after a continent, following the pattern set by europium.

Named from the Greek word for 'lazy,' this noble gas makes up about 1% of Earth's atmosphere and was found by Ramsay in 1894.

German chemist Friedrich Wohler prepared a pure sample of this light metal, now used in aerospace alloys, in 1828.

British chemist Henry Cavendish identified this light, flammable gas as a distinct element in 1766.

American physicists Edwin McMillan and Philip Abelson created the first transuranium element in 1940.

Swedish chemist Carl Gustaf Mosander discovered this element in 1839, naming it from the Greek for 'to lie hidden.'

Named after Marie Curie's native country, this radioactive element was her first major discovery, in 1898.

French astronomer Pierre Janssen first detected this element in the sun's spectrum during a solar eclipse in 1868.

Ramsay and Morris Travers discovered this glowing noble gas in 1898, naming it after the Greek word for 'new.'

Spanish-Mexican mineralogist Andres Manuel del _ _ _ first identified this element in 1801, though his claim was long doubted.

Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele identified this greenish, pungent gas, once called 'dephlogisticated marine acid.'

Element 111, created in 1994, honors the physicist who discovered a form of penetrating radiation used in medical imaging.

This American chemist co-discovered plutonium, americium, curium, and several other transuranium elements -- more than anyone in history.

This element honors the founder of the annual science prizes and was first claimed by teams in Sweden, the US, and the USSR.

First produced in 1941, this element was named after the ninth planet from the sun.

This alkaline-earth element, discovered by Humphry Davy via electrolysis in 1808, is used in a chalky gut-imaging drink.

Found alongside palladium in platinum ore in 1803, this element takes its name from the Greek word for 'rose.'

Element 107 was named in 1997 to honor the Danish physicist who modeled the atom's structure.

English chemist Charles Hatchett identified this element in 1801 and named it for the daughter of a mythical king.

German chemist Friedrich Stromeyer discovered this soft, bluish-white metal hidden inside zinc ore in 1817.

This soft, silvery-white metal, discovered by Humphry Davy in 1807, is the sixth most abundant element in Earth's crust.

A Swiss chemist first isolated this rare-earth element in 1880; it is now used in green phosphors for old TV screens.

Berzelius identified this radioactive actinide in 1829 and named it after the Norse god of thunder.

This Russian-German chemist discovered ruthenium in 1844 and named it after Russia (Ruthenia in Latin).

Discovered in 1803 and named for the asteroid Ceres, found two years earlier, this rare-earth element tints ceramics.

German chemist Clemens Winkler discovered this element in 1886, filling a gap Mendeleev had predicted as 'eka-silicon.'

First produced in 1940, this element's name comes from the Greek word for 'unstable.'

French chemist Louis Nicolas Vauquelin discovered this element in 1797, named for the Greek word for 'color.'

German chemists Ida and Walter Noddack co-discovered this dense, silvery metal in 1925, one of the last stable elements found.

French physicist Marguerite Perey discovered this rare, intensely radioactive element in 1939.

Element 106 broke with tradition by being named for a scientist who was still _ _ _ _ _ at the time.