100 YEARS AGO

At the close of the long frost in February, 1895, strange phenomena occurred in connection with Lough Neagh, in the north of Ireland... The lake had been frozen over for a fortnight, and thousands of people had indulged in skating on ice almost as smooth as glass. On February 22, the last day but one of the skating, though unknown to the multitudes gathered near Antrim, the ice in the central portion of the bay broke up, but left intact a sheet of about a third of a mile wide along the south-eastern shore. At a point about six miles from Antrim, this unbroken shore portion was at intervals of a few yards for a mile and upwards raised into little tunnels or bridges, from beneath which pieces of ice, large and small, along with some boulder stones of considerable size, were shot on to the land, eventually forming a ridge varying in height from two to fourteen feet, and perhaps twenty feet broad at the base. The jingling and crashing heard during the operation, which lasted for two days, were very great, and to some persons residing near most alarming.

From Nature 11 February 1904.

50 YEARS AGO

With the ever-increasing amount of effort being devoted to research in nuclear physics, it is perhaps no longer surprising to learn of the production of yet another artificial element — number 99 in the Periodic System (The Times, February 3, quoting a statement from the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission)... The nucleus 99247 is understood to decay by alpha-particle emission with a half-life of a few minutes. Although this achievement is not unexpected, it reflects the greatest credit on Prof. G. T. Seaborg, of Berkeley, California, and his collaborators. It will be interesting to learn what name the discoverers will propose for the element. The chemical properties may be predicted with some certainty on the basis of Seaborg's actinide hypothesis, and if such properties are in fact observed, one may refer to the element temporarily as ekaholmium. The rare earth holmium was named after Stockholm. One wonders whether the discoverers of element 99 can find a name for it, based on a place-name, which is anything like euphonious.

From Nature 13 February 1954.

[Editorial note: element 99 is called einsteinium, symbol Es.]