C&EN: IT'S ELEMENTAL: THE PERIODIC TABLE - BOHRIUM AND HASSIUM C&EN | Periodic Table Element Symbols Ac Ag Al Am Ar As At Au B Ba Be Bh Bi Bk Br C Ca Cd Ce Cf Cl Cm Co Cs Cr Cu Db Ds Dy Es Er Eu F Fe Fm Fr Ga Gd Ge H He Hf Hg Ho Hs I In Ir K Kr La Li Lr Lu Md Mg Mn Mo Mt N Na Nb Nd Ne Ni No Np O Os P Pa Pb Pd Pm Po Pr Pt Pu Ra Rb Re Rf Rh Rn Ru S Sb Sc Se Sg Si Sm Sn Sr Ta Tb Tc Te Th Ti Tl Tm U Uub Uuq Uuu V W Xe Y Yb Zn Zr Element Names Actinium Aluminum Americium Antimony Argon Arsenic Astatine Barium Berkelium Beryllium Bismuth Bohrium Boron Bromine Cadmium Calcium Californium Carbon Cerium Cesium Chlorine Chromium Cobalt Copper Curium Darmstadtium+ Dubnium Dysprosium Einsteinium Erbium Europium Fermium Fluorine Francium Gadolinium Gallium Germanium Gold Hafnium Hassium Helium Holmium Hydrogen Indium Iodine Iridium Iron Krypton Lanthanum Lawrencium Lead Lithium Magnesium Manganese Meitnerium Mendelevium Mercury Molybdenum Neodymium Neon Neptunium Nickel Niobium Nitrogen Nobelium Osmium Oxygen Palladium Phosphorus Platinum Plutonium Polonium Potassium Praseodymium Promethium Protactinium Radium Radon Rhenium Rhodium Rubidium Ruthenium Rutherfordium Samarium Scandium Seaborgium Selenium Silicon Silver Sodium Strontium Sulfur Tantalum Technetium Tellerium Terbium Thallium Thorium Thulium Tin Titanium Tungsten Uranium Vanadium Xenon Ytterbium Yttrium Zinc Zirconium Author Names M.
by PETER ARMBRUSTER | September 08, 2003
The group had initiated a program in 1952 to irradiate plutonium in a reactor in Idaho with neutrons to transmute plutonium into heavier actinides. For synthesis of Z = 101, -particles (He2+) from the cyclotron would be used to increase the atomic number of the target einsteinium by two units. We calculated that one-year irradiation of the Pu would yield about 1 billion atoms of Es.
by GREGORY R. CHOPPIN, FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY | September 08, 2003
Wolke Amanda Yarnell Hong Yetang Pam Zurer Ivo Zvara PROTACTINIUM LINDA RABER , C&EN WASHINGTON " Don't call it transmutation. They'll have our heads off as alchemists!"Ernest Rutherford warned his colleague Frederick Soddy in 1901. But transmutation it was--and transmutation would be the theme during Soddy's life (18771956).
by LINDA RABER | September 08, 2003
One of the main pursuits of the alchemist was to discover how to make the philosopher's stone, a theoretical material agent of transmutation--the act of turning common metals such as iron, lead, or tin into precious metals, specifically silver or gold. MODERN SCIENCE tells us that transmutation is not chemically possible, but alchemists of that period believed that this conversion could take place under the right conditions and with the help of the philosopher's stone. After all, miners and refiners knew for hundreds of years that lead ore almost always contained some silver and that silver ore was almost always contaminated with gold--indicating a natural process where metals developed over time into more precious metals. It wasn't until early in the 18th century that alchemy and chemistry split.
by SUSAN R. MORRISSEY | July 08, 2002
Mercury alloys, called amalgams, have been known for thousands of years and traditionally were used for metal extraction and in attempts at transmutation of mercury into gold. Although a wide range of alkali-metal amalgams with different stoichiometries and structures is known, the bonding in amalgams still has not been completely elucidated, they note.
by STEPHEN K. RITTER, C&EN WASHINGTON | September 24, 2001
Used in many catalytic applications--including the conversion of crude oil to gasoline--as well as in difficult separations, zeolites do come close to the magical stones alchemists sought for their power to transmute base metals into gold. These applications take advantage of the void spaces, the sizes and shapes of which are defined by the aluminate-silicate framework.
by A. Maureen Rouhi | August 21, 2000
But over the past 18 years, the English-born, Cambridge University-trained historian has transmuted the U.S. chemical community's first tentative step to establish its own professional history program into the largest heritage organization devoted to a single area of science and technology. Under Thackray's leadership, CHF now has the most extensive historical chemical library in the country and a growing collection of artifacts, archives, and art.
by Michael Heylin | July 31, 2000
If we "discount the medieval alchemists," as Nalley suggests, then we must also discount medieval and early modern physicians, whose theories, practices, and methodologies were as far removed from today's medicine as the alchemists' transmutation of lead into gold was from today's nuclear chemistry.
March 27, 2000
If we "discount the medieval alchemists," as Nalley suggests, then we must also discount medieval and early modern physicians, whose theories, practices, and methodologies were as far removed from today's medicine as the alchemists' transmutation of lead into gold was from today's nuclear chemistry.
March 27, 2000
Gold-bearing plants Making plants bear gold is not quite the alchemist's dream of transmuting cheap metals into precious ones, but it's close. Graduate student Christopher W. N. Anderson and emeritus professor of geochemistry Robert R. Brooks at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand, and coworkers have induced plants to accumulate significant amounts of gold from ores [Nature, 395, 553 (1998)]. The work could lead to an environmentally friendly method of mining for gold. Brassicas (members of the mustard family) and chicory appear to be very good gold miners, amassing up to 57 ppm of gold in plant dry matter. That translates to a "bio-ore" containing about 150 ppm gold in the ash when the biomass is burned. With gold currently selling at $300 per oz, the operation could break even with only 17 ppm in plant dry matter, the researchers suggest. Ordinarily, plants growing over gold ores take up only about 10 ppb gold in plant dry matter. The New Zealand researchers have managed to increase uptake dramatically by treating the ores with ammonium thiocyanate. "This reagent is 150 times less toxic than the cyanide used by gold miners," Brooks says. "And like cyanide, it readily breaks down in the soil after it has done its work." Learning how plants survive drought Most of the water given off by a plant transpires through stomatal pores, which are controlled by pairs of guard cells on the leaf surface.
October 12, 1998