Welcome; as others have said it's not odd at all. Pretty much everyone with any interest in the subject (including readers of e.g. popular science magazines) in the 1980s knew that new elements had been synthesized, and that physicists thought...
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There is nothing mysterious about predicting E115. Elements where being synthesised. And just weeks before Lazar came out with his story, A science magazine had run a story on scientists quest to synthesize E114-E116. Even spoke...
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I believe Knapp made a point of saying Lazar's name appeared in a LANL phone directory, but it included the letters "KM" next to his name, indicating he was a contract employee of the Kirk Mayer Company, that provided...