Abstract
The story of the first synthetic elements is one interlinked with the development of nuclear science and atomic weapons. As such, its impact is often overlooked or underestimated, particularly in how the hunt for elements affected research priorities and contributed to the prestige of the discoverers, many of whom would go on to hold influential positions throughout the cold war. This review focuses on the first attempts to synthesize transuranic elements in the 1930s until the discovery of einsteinium and fermium in 1952. It charts the discovery of the elements, gives context to the character of the discoverers, describes some of their more colorful adventures and provides wider context in terms of the political and scientific changes occurring at the start of the atomic age, which set the scene for the so-called “transfermium wars” and the hunt for the superheavy elements.
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Notes
- 1.
Throughout this chapter, I will refer to the discovery of synthetic elements; while some philosophers of science have questioned whether synthesis counts as “discovery” in the traditional sense, that debate is outside the purview of this discussion.
- 2.
Segrè was Jewish, and had been en route to California in 1938 when anti-Semitic laws were passed banning Jewish academics from holding professorships in Italy. Rather than return home, he decided to continue his career in the United States.
- 3.
While McMillan and Abelson are credited with the discovery of neptunium, it is worth noting that in Japan Yoshio Nishina, using a cyclotron based on Lawrence’s design, almost certainly produced neptunium too. He was, however, unable to prove his discovery.
- 4.
Seaborg’s personal influence, which would only grow throughout his lifetime, cannot be understated. In 1998, members of the American Chemical Society voted Seaborg the third greatest chemist of the past 75 years, behind organic chemistry doyen Robert Burns Woodward and two-time Nobel laureate Linus Pauling [8].
- 5.
The discovery, analyzed in Chicago, was based on a bombardment of 239Pu by helium ions at Berkeley.
- 6.
Richard Williams would become a career diplomat and served as the first US ambassador to Mongolia and later Consul General in Hong Kong.
- 7.
Strictly speaking, priority was contested over californium by the Soviet physicists Znoyko and Semishin on the basis they had predicted the elements’ properties two years prior to its synthesis. However, this claim was considered spurious and ignored.
- 8.
Seaborg died in 1999. He remained the only person to have an element named after them while still alive until 2016, when Flerov’s successor Yuri Oganessian was recognized with element 118, oganesson. Lawrence (103), Meitner (109) and Flerov (114) would also have elements named after them.
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Chapman, K. (2021). Element Discovery and the Birth of the Atomic Age. In: Giunta, C.J., Mainz, V.V., Girolami, G.S. (eds) 150 Years of the Periodic Table. Perspectives on the History of Chemistry. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-67910-1_13
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