Discovery and History Californium’s story begins with the pioneering work of Glenn T. Seaborg and his team at the University of California, Berkeley, in the 1940s and 1950s. Seaborg, a renowned nuclear chemist, was instrumental in the discovery of several transuranium elements. Using the then-newly developed technique of nuclear reactor irradiation, Seaborg and his collaborators…

Discovery and History Berkelium, was first synthesized in December 1949 by a team of scientists led by Glenn T. Seaborg, Albert Ghiorso, Stanley G. Thompson, and Kenneth Street Jr. at the University of California, Berkeley. This discovery was part of the broader endeavor to extend the periodic table by synthesizing new transuranium elements beyond uranium.…

Discovery and History Curium was first discovered in 1944 by Glenn T. Seaborg, Ralph A. James, and Albert Ghiorso at the University of California, Berkeley, as part of the Manhattan Project during World War II. The Manhattan Project aimed to develop nuclear weapons, and researchers were investigating the properties of various transuranium elements in the…

Discovery and History The discovery of americium, a synthetic element with atomic number 95, marks a pivotal achievement in the annals of nuclear science, particularly during the mid-20th century. This milestone was realized through the collaborative efforts of scientists Glenn T. Seaborg, Ralph A. James, Leon O. Morgan, and Albert Ghiorso at the University of…

Discovery and History Plutonium, was first synthesized in 1940 by a team of scientists led by Glenn T. Seaborg, Edwin M. McMillan, Joseph W. Kennedy, and Arthur C. Wahl at the University of California, Berkeley. The discovery of plutonium was a result of their pioneering work in nuclear chemistry and the bombardment of uranium with…

Discovery and History The story of neptunium’s discovery began in the early 20th century with the groundbreaking work of scientists such as Ernest Rutherford, who laid the foundation for understanding atomic structure and radioactivity. By the 1930s, researchers were actively investigating the transmutation of elements through nuclear reactions, particularly through the bombardment of heavy elements…

Discovery and History The discovery and history of uranium are rich with scientific breakthroughs, industrial applications, and geopolitical ramifications. It all began in 1789 when Martin Heinrich Klaproth identified a new element while examining pitchblende, naming it after the recently discovered planet Uranus. However, it wasn’t until 1841 that Eugène-Melchior Péligot successfully isolated metallic uranium.…

Discovery and History The discovery of protactinium, stems from the pioneering work on radioactivity by scientists such as Henri Becquerel and Marie Curie in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In 1913, German scientists Kasimir Fajans and Oswald Helmuth Göhring observed an anomalous radioactivity during experiments with uranium decay. They identified a transient radioactive…

Discovery and History Thorium was discovered by the Swedish chemist Jöns Jacob Berzelius and the Swedish mineralogist Wilhelm Hisinger in 1828. They identified thorium while analyzing a mineral sample obtained from the Falun copper mine in Sweden. The mineral, later named thorite, contained a new element that exhibited unique chemical properties. Berzelius and Hisinger named…

Discovery and History Actinium was first discovered in 1899 by Friedrich Oskar Giesel, a German chemist, and independently by André-Louis Debierne, a French chemist. Giesel isolated actinium from uranium ores while studying the decay chain of uranium. He named the new element “emamium” but later changed it to actinium. Debierne, working in collaboration with Marie…