2003/09/08 by A. Ghiorso · 3 citations
Physics and Astronomy · Social Sciences · #Radioactive Decay and Measurement Techniques #International Science and Diplomacy #Relativity and Gravitational Theory
paper · doi:10.1021/cen-v081n036.p174
openalex publication_date 2003/09/08 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
AS A CODISCOVERER OF ALL OF the elements from 96 to 106 and of the earliest work on element 110,1 can attest to the fact that all of that research was exciting: It was an exploration into the unknown that required the development of new techniques that eventually developed sensitivities for identifying one atom at a time. But the discovery of elements 99 and 100 was something quite different. It was completely unexpected, a most extraordinary event that mimicked the r-process by which the heaviest elements were put on our Earth in the first place. It occurred in 1952, when the first thermonuclear device in history was exploded in the South Pacific by Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory. This was a highly secret event, and initially, the UC Radiation Laboratory was not involved in any way In fact, our first news that something very unusual had happened came when Glenn T. Seaborg received from Washington, D.C., ...