/oss/taxonomy/term/5822/all en /oss/article/general-science/earth-moon <p>No, this story is not about space travel. It is about the naming of elements, specifically, selenium, discovered by the Swedish chemist Jons Jacob Berzelius in 1817. He named it after Selene, the Goddess of the Moon. One might therefore assume that selenium has some connection to the moon, but it doesn’t. The element has no lunar link, but on earth, selenium-bearing minerals are often found together with tellurium-bearing minerals. When Berzelius discovered selenium, tellurium was already known, and had been named after Tellus, the Roman Goddess of the Earth.</p> Thu, 25 Nov 2021 22:57:24 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 8931 at /oss