While 'America - has been busy isolating a new ;germ, Dr.
Alexander Scott, -in England, has 'succeeded in isolating a new element called Hafnium. It was:reported in the Ti nee last month that two Danish chemists, :Coster and Hevesy, discovered by X-ray spectroscopy the existence of an unknown element -which they showed to be a •claimant -for the -number 72 in the atomic table .of elements experimentally determined by Moseley, the :brilliant young English scientist who was killed in -Gallipoli in 1915, after accomplishing at the early age .of twenty-seven more than many others have done in a lifetime. Moseley discovered by. Lray methods a spectrum for each element of two 'lines whose vibrations, -increased regularly -as he passed from one element (to another. He was- therefore• able to draw up a table of numbers indicating elements yet to be discovered, and the numbers obtained by him are now generally accepted as defining the physical and 'chemical properties of the elements to which they apply. In the present case Dr. Alexander Scott realized, on hearing of Coster and Hevesy's discovery, that a certain residue which he had collected since 1918 from .a black sand found in New Zealand possessed characteristics implying that it might be the element represented by Moseley's No. '72, and this was corroborated by further experiments. He has now offered samples to the Danish scientists for X-ray investigation.
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