Word: curium
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...existed, but they're radioactive, and decay so quickly that there's none left on Earth, or, as far as we know, in space. Or there wasn't, rather, until physicists armed with cyclotrons began making them during World War II creating such exotic substances as Americium (94 protons), Curium (96), Berkelium (97). The more protons (and neutrons, which tend to add up even faster), the harder it is to make a new element-but that hasn't stopped scientists from trying...
...atomic bomb; in 1951 Seaborg and McMillan received the Nobel Prize for their discovery. Working in a University of California laboratory, Seaborg and his associates gradually extended the periodic table of elements, usually named their discoveries for their place of origin (americum, berkelium, californium), or for fellow scientists (curium, einsteinium, fermium). But Seaborg modestly discounts his achievements: "It was just a matter of being there. After all, we had the cyclotron...
...check this theory, Dr. Kohman suggests, is more thorough analysis of tektites. Tektites that came from a stellar system much younger than the solar system should, for example, contain traces of short-lived elements (e.g., plutonium 244 and curium 247) that have long been extinct on earth...
Fields and Friedman interested British Chemist John Milsted, who wangled some time on the Stockholm cyclotron, the only one in operation capable of projecting a sufficiently intense beam of carbon ions. Milsted also undertook the tricky job of making curium into a thin film, and sandwiching it between aluminum foil to form a suitable target. The apparatus was arranged so that any atoms of element 102 formed would be knocked out of the target and would stick to a "catcher foil," a bit of plastic film...
Juggler Technique. Element 102 disintegrated so fast that a major problem was to prove that it had been created at all. The scientists developed a technique that would have done credit to a team of Japanese jugglers. After the curium had been bombarded for about 20 minutes, the Swedes shut down the cyclotron. As the concrete shield opened, a group of scientists, wearing gloves and dust masks against radioactivity, dashed into the cyclotron chamber. One snatched the target from the machine, another took it apart and passed it to a third, who extracted the catcher foil. The fastest runner, generally...