The giant 'inventors' at Berkley

In the field of super heavy element science; The study discovered new elements to fill the last empty cells and extend the periodic table of chemical elements, G. Seaborg and scientists at Lawrence National Laboratory at Berkley University ( LBNL), USA, are pioneers.

Although recently, a number of pages have published an article about a superlative ' writer ' Victor Ninov with 'fabulous invention ' element 118 caused much less notoriety for the name of LBNL, but Ninov was just a human being, and the National Laboratory of Berkley is still resounding reputation as the world's great inventor.

LBNL National Laboratory on the Pacific Coast,
view from above. (Photo: Science Photo Library)

LBNL: Inventory furnace

The discovery of a new element to extend the periodic table is an exciting scientific event and has always been interested and admired by the scientific community.

But this is also a difficult and very expensive field of research. Because traces exist on the earth, in nature the super-heavy elements are almost never found and may not be able to be found. They can only be discovered or, more precisely, produced by artificial methods in a few of the world's leading laboratories; such as the JINR Nuclear Research Institute in Dubna (Russia), GSI Heavy Ion Center in Darmstad (Germany) and the LBNL National Laboratory in Berkley (USA).

Beyond the first place, LBNL became the birthplace of a series of heavy and super heavy elements, the giant furnace that came out in more than half a century, famous inventions.

It is possible to list the sequence of elements discovered by physicists and chemists in LBNL, such as Astatine, Neptunium, Plutonium, Curium (copper), Americium, Berkelium, Californium, Einsteinium, Fermium, Mendelevium, Nobelium, Lawrencium, Dubnium and, in particular, Seaborgium.

America, California state, University of Berkley and American science must be honored forever when their elite citizens' names and places have been attached to the golden table of chemical elements such as Americium, Californium. , Berkelium, Einsteinium, Fermium, Lawrencium and Seaborgium.

With 14 elements (including 12 super heavy elements) were discovered; Compared to 116 elements discovered throughout the length of human history, reaching over 10%, it is clear that the Berkley National Laboratory has made outstanding contributions to world science on the path of mysterious discovery. of the natural world.

This impressive achievement is only possible in the ideal conditions of research equipment and intellectual content.

Ideal machines

The main research equipment to perform difficult, complex and sophisticated experiments at the National Laboratory LBNL is: Super clean beer plates. Extremely powerful neutron beams are created on the reactor or in the explosions of atomic bombs or hydrogen bombs. Large accelerators, baby beams of light-weight ion bullets . And the sophisticated splitting system allows to identify products produced during ' bullet and beer ' collisions; Rare nuclei of a new element are hunting.

Bevatron circular accelerator in LBNL. (Photo: Science Photo Library)

Steles made from pure precious materials, super clean, from Uranium, Copper, Gold . until the only materials available at LBNB like Californium can only be synthesized on accelerators with blocks. Extremely limited quantities and more expensive than gold metal many times.

Small to large accelerators, from Cyclotrron and Bevatron circle accelerators, or straight heavy particle accelerators HILAC and SuperHILAC. Or it is possible to combine straight and circular accelerators together to accelerate heavy particles to achieve the desired intensity and velocity.

Super HILAC linear accelerator in LBNL. (Photo: Science Photo Library)

And the gas-containing mass spectrometer named BGS (Gas-Filled Separator) is the most efficient and modern machine to dissociate and identify new nuclei being hunted through block A, kinetic energy .

Giants .

No research center in the world converts giants, great minds from many parts of the world like in LBNL.

In particular, there is no place where the density of ' Nobel-rich ' is as in the National Laboratory Berkley LBNL, with 11 Nobel laureates in physics and chemistry, names: Ernest Lawrence, Glenn T. Seaborg, Edwin M. McMillan, Owen Chamberlain, Emilio G. Segrè, Donald A. Glaser, Melvin Calvin, Luis W. Alvarez, Yuan T. Lee, Steven Chu, and George F. Smoot.

In addition, at LBNL, 57 researchers who are members of the American Academy of Sciences (NAS), 13 were awarded the National Science Medal, 18 elected engineers to the National Academy of Technology family etc.

And it is here, at LBNL, that the ship hunts for treasure the super-heavy elements that are steered by the talented captain - the legendary chemist Glenn T. Seaborg.

Seaborg himself directed or was the main author of the works that invented the following 10 super-uranium elements: Plutonium (element 94, sign Pu, 1940 invention year), Nobelium (102, No, 1957 ), Curium (96, Ci, 1944), Americium (95, Am, 1945), Berkelium (97, Bk, 1949), Californium (98, Cf, 1955), Einsteinium (99, Es, 1962), Fermium (100 , Fm, 1962), Medelevium (101, Md, 1965) and Seaborgium (106, Sg, 1974).

And naming element 106 Seaborgium has brought Green Seaborg to the list of 10 people in history named after the chemical element, Curies (Cm-96), Einstein (Es-90), Fermi (Fm- 100), Mendeleev (Md-101), Nobelium (No-102), Lawrence (Lw-103), Rutherford (Rf-104), Seaborg (Sg-106), Bohr (Bh-107), Meitner (Mt 107) ). In it, Glenn Theodore Seaborg is a historical exception, the first person in the world to be named a chemical element while still alive.

With great contributions in the field of research and discovery of new elements, super heavy elements, Seaborg and his outstanding associates at the Berkley LBNL National Laboratory are truly the global scientific community. world of honor and admiration.