Element 98

Creating new heavy elements is a faint bit like working a pinball machine; it takes a nice judgment of speed. Last week a group of University of California scientists led by Professor Glenn Seaborg told how they created Element 98, which stands six steps up the periodic table (of chemical elements) from uranium, the heaviest natural element. They did it by shooting alpha particles (helium nuclei) at curium, another synthetic element, No. 96, created by a Seaborg group in 1945.

The Californians knew that the alpha particles would have to move at just the right speed. If they moved too slowly, they would bounce off the curium nuclei. If they moved too fast, they would smash the more fragile nuclei. So the scientists adjusted their old reliable 60-inch cyclotron until it emitted alpha particles with 35 million electron volts of energy. This is not high power by modern standards (see above), but it did the trick. The alpha particles entered the curium nuclei and some of them stayed there, turning the curium into Element 98.

The scientists named their creation "californium" after their state and university. They did not manufacture much of it. The curium they used was an invisible film weighing a few millionths of a gram, and only a small fraction of it changed into californium. The new element proved so radioactive that half of it disintegrated in 45 minutes. It took fast action to identify it and measure some of its properties before it vanished.

Seaborg and his associates are understandably proud of their new element. By theoretical figuring, they predicted in advance what it would be like. Then, after the feat of creation, they found that californium was just as they expected it to be.

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