Elemental Discoveries

Duke University researchers have discovered a new chemical element, or so it would seem from a recent news item about magnetic resonance imaging and heart disease.

The new element, Gandolinium, sounds like it may have been mined somewhere in Middle Earth.

Unfortunately, this is no scientific breakthrough into the mythical world of Tolkien, but a simple typo for the element gadolinium, commonly used as a contrast enhancement agent in MRI.

A quick Google of the mythical element - gandolinium - revealed just over 500 sites with this misspelling. Thankfully, it’s not a typo we’ve made on Sciencebase. Go on, check the Google search now. In contrast you’ll find three pages on the site mentioning gadolinium.