Nuclear instrumentation and element synthesis · 1915–2010
Albert Ghiorso
Ghiorso came to the Berkeley laboratory as an electronics builder rather than as a physicist or chemist, and the detectors and data systems he designed are what made single-atom identification workable. He co-discovered more elements than anyone else, largely because the identification of a few atoms depends on distinguishing a genuine decay chain from background — a problem of instrumentation and analysis as much as of nuclear reactions. He also designed the HILAC and its successor, the accelerators that produced most of the Berkeley elements.
Explore the supporting references at the foot of this article.
Contribution & context
He shared in the discovery of twelve elements from americium through seaborgium, including the mendelevium experiment of 1955 in which seventeen atoms were identified by their elution position and , and the development of the recoil and mother–daughter correlation techniques that later work depended on.
nrc.gov — Americiumnasa.gov — AmericiumRSC Periodic Table — Americiumornl.gov — AmericiumRSC Periodic Table — Americium
Discoveries in context
Making elements beyond uranium ↗
Eleven elements heavier than uranium were made rather than found, and identifying them meant inventing chemistry that works on a few thousand atoms at a time.
Sources & further reading
- nrc.gov — Americium ↗nrc.govReference explanation · Source checked
- nasa.gov — Americium ↗nasa.govReference explanation · Source checked
- RSC Periodic Table — Americium ↗Royal Society of ChemistryReference explanation · Source checked
- ornl.gov — Americium ↗ornl.govReference explanation · Source checked
- RSC Periodic Table — Americium ↗Royal Society of ChemistryReference explanation · Source checked
Sources and further reading. What the review labels mean