No. 97

Medieval man knew of only four elements--earth, air, fire and water. By 1940, scientists knew of 92 elements--ranging from lightweight hydrogen, whose atom has only one electron, to heavy uranium, with 92 electrons. Many chemists thought that their long search for elements was ended, and then the University of California's powerful cyclotron got busy.

Atomic experts bombarded uranium with atomic particles from the cyclotron and produced neptunium, a new "synthetic" element with 93 electrons. Next, Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg and co-workers discovered plutonium (No. 94), and, four years later, at the University of Chicago, americium (No. 95) and curium (No. 96). Last week tall, gaunt, 37-year-old Chemist Seaborg and his associates were in the news again. By bombarding americium with alpha particles, they had produced another new element, with 97 electrons.

The San Francisco Examiner got hold of the story and printed it, although such discoveries are on the Atomic Energy Commission's restricted list. But once the news of No. 97 was out, the University of California nastily conferred with AEC and issued a guarded statement. After "four years' work in which the necessary background information of both the chemical and nuclear properties of the heavy elements [were] investigated and systematized . . . extremely small amounts of the new element were made on the 60-inch cyclotron of the Crocker Radiation Laboratory . . . Details concerning how the new isotope was made and its properties are not available, but theoretical considerations rule out its use in production of atomic weapons."

Proposed name for No. 97: "berkelium" (pronounced berklium), in honor of Berkeley, the university's home town.

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