On the 150th anniversary of the publication of the periodic table, Swiss researchers are celebrating three elements discovered by the country's scientists -- gadolinium (Gd), holmium (Ho), and ytterbium (Yb) -- according to an article published on 6 March by SWI swissinfo.ch. The table was published by Russian scientist Dmitri Mendeleev in 1869.
Jean-Charles Galissard de Marignac of the University of Geneva discovered ytterbium in 1878 and gadolinium in 1880. Also in 1878, two of de Marignac's students, Jacques-Louis Soret and Marc Delafontaine, discovered holmium.
Gadolinium was named after Finnish chemist Johan Gadolin, according to the article.
