Word: deuterium
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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Atoms of the same chemical element which have different weights are called isotopes. Isotopes are Chemist Urey's special ty. He won a Nobel Prize for discovering deuterium, the heavy isotope of hydrogen which makes "heavy water" (TIME, Nov. 26, 1934). Later, one of the Urey crews produced large quantities of heavy nitrogen (TIME, Sept. 20, 1937). Nitrogen is present in all proteins. Heavy nitrogen atoms can be distinguished from the common kind by mass spectrographic means, but in protein reactions they run along with their lighter fellows, and so serve as "tagged atoms" or chemical spies to show...
Some scientific discoveries are made because they were theoretically predicted and diligently looked for. Such was the discovery of the planet Pluto whose existence and probable orbit were indicated by irregularities in the orbits of other planets. So, too, deuterium (heavy hydrogen) was identified because its discoverer already had intimations of its existence, and the positive electron was foreshadowed in the cogitations of at least one mathematician before its track turned up in the laboratory. In fact, some things are made use of even before they are discovered - e.g., the little uncharged particle called the neutrino which atomic physicists need...
...triterium." When this verbal goblin reached the eye of Dr. Kenneth Claude Bailey, professor of physical chemistry and authority on chemical etymology at University of Dublin, Dr. Bailey promptly took pen in hand and wrote a letter of protest which appeared in Nature last week. Excerpt: "The word 'deuterium' [accepted name for the double-weight hydrogen atom] is correctly formed from the Greek deuteros, 'second,' but the Greek for 'third' is tritos, not triteros. The name which corresponds properly with 'deuterium' is clearly 'tritium,' and this word is already...
...this reminded connoisseurs of scientific nomenclature of a controversy which willful Lord Rutherford stirred up some time ago after Columbia University's Harold Clayton Urey had christened doubleweight. hydrogen "deuterium." Dr. Urey had discovered doubleweight hydrogen and it seemed that he had a right to name it. The nucleus was called the "deuton." Dr. Rutherford did not like these names, especially "deuton," which he declared was likely to be confused by Englishmen with "neutron," particularly if the speaker had a cold. Lord Rutherford was for calling the atom "diplogen" and its nucleus the "diplon," and a number of British...
Heavyweight Detectives. Deuterium occurs in nature to the extent of one atom among 4,500 atoms of ordinary hydrogen. With modern apparatus if deuterium is present in quantities much greater than this proportion it can be detected. Thus if a man weighing 160 lb. drinks 20 drops of heavy water, the excess of deuterium will show in his urine. Biologists have been quick to see that, with two kinds of hydrogen atoms as distinct as red and green, a neat method was available for tracing the course of hydrogen-bearing compounds in body processes. Scientists in Germany have already found...