The story
From Nier + -ite. Named for Alfred Otto Carl Nier, the American physicist who pioneered mass spectrometry, and used it to isolate Uranium-235.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Today it means: A trigonal-ditrigonal pyramidal mineral containing four nitrogen and three silicon. Full definition →
From Nier + -ite. Named for Alfred Otto Carl Nier, the American physicist who pioneered mass spectrometry, and used it to isolate Uranium-235.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.