Isotopes for Chemistry Dummies

The three isotopes of hydrogen

Readers might be surprised – then again, they might not – at the number of times our research staffers run across complete and utter bull while wandering cyberspace in search of DotD candidates. The sad fact is that there are so many of them out there, it's hard to keep track of the most idiotic rubbish we've run across... but a few months ago, we happened on a Sciencing.com post that we thought deserved the Dumbass of the Year post. Well, that same author is back again: witness Ezmeralda Lee and her phractured fysics in "Who Discovered the Isotope?" Trust us: your notion of nuclear chemistry will be changed forever.

From the get-go it's patently obvious that Ezmeralda had absolutely no idea what she was talking about; perhaps because she skipped chemistry (any science at all, in fact) while getting her BA in English. That's most likely why she came up with blather on the order of,

• "The discovery of the isotope brought with it the possibility of breaking chemical elements into many small, isolated components that could be used in different ways..."
• "The use of isotopes in scientific experiments is now common..."
• "Isotopes presented to the world a component of the element that was smaller than an atom and derived from an atom..."

• "The best known use of the isotope is in nuclear weapons and energy..."
• "Isotopes had distinct and different effects on each mineral..."
• "...with the discovery of a new chemical element, new isotopes are isolated with their own unique properties..."

From what Lee has written here, it's readily apparent that she never bothered to learn what an isotope is! For instance, Ezmeralda never used any of the words "neutron," "nucleus," "stable," or "unstable"; and never mentioned the notion of atomic weight. She incorrectly assumed (we think...) that different isotopes have different chemical properties, and somehow decided that an isotope is "smaller than an atom".

Dumbass of the Day? Certainly. Dumbass of the Year? A likely candidate!

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