The text of the entry was: Did you know ... that nuclear scientist Clarice Phelps has been recognized as the first African-American woman to be involved with the discovery of a chemical element?
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Maryam Zaringhalam, Jess Wade (12 April 2019). "It matters who we champion in science". Washington Post. Retrieved 29 April 2019. Take Clarice Phelps, the first African American woman to be part of team that discovered a superheavy element. Phelps purified the berkelium-249 that was used in the discovery and identification of Tennessine (element 117), named after the location of the lab where she works. But Phelps was not named in the official announcement and was not profiled by international newspapers. Without these crucial pieces of recognition, her biography was quickly deemed not appropriate for Wikipedia.
Samira Sadeque (April 29, 2019). "Wikipedia just won't let this Black female scientist's page stay". The Daily Dot. Retrieved May 8, 2019. The drive to get Phelps' name on Wikipedia was initiated by a Jess Wade, a postdoctoral researcher in physics in the U.K., who has a mission to make women scientists visible on the internet—starting with their Wikipedia pages, which many people rely on for information.
Sam Lemonick (June 9, 2019). "Kit Chapman tells stories of the superheavy elements". Chemical & Engineering News. Retrieved June 19, 2019. Wade wrote a short entry about Phelps, but Wikipedia later deleted it after critics argued Phelps was not notable enough to warrant a page. Chapman thinks his tweet about Phelps drew trolls' attention to the entry, which led to a campaign to delete the page.
Katrina Krämer (3 July 2019). "Female scientists' pages keep disappearing from Wikipedia – what's going on?". Chemistry World. Retrieved 5 July 2019. Jessica Wade, a physical chemist at Imperial College London, UK, who created both Phelps' and Tuttle's page, says out of the 600 articles she has written so far about female, black, minority ethnic or LGBTQ+ scientists, six have been deleted as they weren't deemed notable. But almost every single one is being scrutinised – particularly those on ethnic minority women, Wade says.
Cara Curtis (31 July 2019). "Wikipedia bios for women scientists are more likely to be flagged for removal". The Next Web. Retrieved 1 August 2019. A few months ago, Sarah Tuttle, an astrophysicist, tweeted how her Wikipedia page was flagged for deletion. This came after the online encyclopedia platform had removed Clarice Phelps', an African-American nuclear scientist, bio three times during Black History Month in February.
Jocelyn Evans (February 11, 2020). "Physicist writes 900 Wikipedia entries to boost diversity in science". itv.com. Retrieved February 17, 2020. Asked about some of the highlights from her 900 Wikipedia entries so far, Dr Wade reeled off in an instant a list of female scientists and scientists of colour. One entry - from the start of her project - is Gladys West, an African American mathematician known for her work on mathematical modelling of the shape of the Earth. Another was Katie Bouman, the woman behind the first black hole image. Dr Wade described Clarice Phelps, the first African-American woman to be involved with the discovery of a chemical element, as a "rockstar".
Timothy Harper (October 11, 2022). "This 33-year-old made more than 1,000 Wikipedia bios for unknown female scientists". today.com. Retrieved October 12, 2022. One example was Clarice Phelps. Wade heard about the young African-American nuclear chemist, and wrote a Wikipedia bio describing her work on a team that discovered a new periodic-table element at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The Phelps entry bounced on and off Wikipedia as critics deleted it and Wade defended it. In the end, Wade won, and Phelps' entry is back on Wikipedia for good.
Latest comment: 1 month ago3 comments2 people in discussion
I'm not sure how comfortable I am with describing the process in which atoms of tennessine were synthesized as "discovery". Yes, media sources use that term, but how accurate is it? DS (talk) 21:39, 10 September 2024 (UTC)Reply
It isn't just the media. The experimental creation of synthetic elements has been referred to as "discovery" in the scientific literature for decades. Here are some examples from 1993, 1987, and 1980. --RL0919 (talk) 23:02, 10 September 2024 (UTC)Reply
Mmm... I suppose it's valid to say that, after the berkelium and calcium nuclei were bashed together, a few tennessine atoms were discovered among what emerged. DS (talk) 18:31, 17 September 2024 (UTC)Reply
