Seaborgium

Nottinghamshire first-class cricketer and professional footballer Sam Weller Widdowson, made one particular important contribution to sport. He invented shin guards.

Born in Hucknall, Widdowson came up with the idea in 1874, of cutting down a pair of cricket pads and strapping them over socks to prevent damage to his legs and ankles when playing football as a forward.

He played professionally for Nottingham Forest and they were the first team to wear the shin guards.

Seaborgium is a man-made radioactive transition metal. It was the first element named for a living person and honours contributions made by Nobel Prize-winning nuclear chemist Glenn Seaborg.

Controversy surrounds the discovery, which was claimed by both a Soviet team of researchers, and a US team out of Berkeley, California.

What seaborgium looks like is not known, because not enough has been made to see it with the human eye.