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Synthetic elements with very heavy nuclei, such as darmstadtium (Ds) and flerovium (Fl), can exhibit behaviors that make these elements challenging to classify. The earliest experiment with Fl revealed properties associated with noble gases, while a second experiment found that Fl acts like a volatile metal. When Yakushev, Lens, et al. studied interactions between Fl and gold surfaces, they found that Fl is less reactive than the volatile metal mercury but is more reactive than the noble gas radon. These results confirm that Fl forms chemical bonds with gold, but the mechanisms of these reactions are unclear.