Superheavy: Making and Breaking the periodic table
Kit Chapman
★★★★★ 4/5
Non Fiction: Science, nuclear physics
Yes, the story and science of element discovery can be interesting!
Can a book devoted solely to the discovery of the transuranic elements hold someone’s attention through ~300 pages? Superheavy was rated one of the best science books of 2019 and I had to give it a shot. And I’m glad I did: Kit Chapman happily proved my skepticism wrong. His is a passionate retelling of the story about a group of dedicated scientists and their almost maniacal quest to create that which does not exist (at least on the earth): the superheavy elements.
Engaging storytelling blending science and its history
The elements with atomic number greater than Uranium (92) have all been created/discovered in labs in the last 80 years (through Neptunium and Plutonium exist in trace amounts in nature). Plutonium (at. No. 94) is perhaps the most widely known thanks to atomic bombs. The research and subsequent discovery require as much, or more patience and perseverance as they do ingenuity to design and operate the complex and expensive equipment that powers the science. The story of these superheavy elements is then also as much the story of these scientists pushing the frontiers of human understanding in a race with each other to be the first.
Mr Chapman does a fantastic job of blending the science (simplified to high school chemistry level; explained well here) with the stories of the scientists and the institutions engaged in the race to create and discover these elements.
The story spans the time from WW2, which galvanized the quest for new elements for atomic weapons, to the present and a future poised for more discoveries. Much of it is a race to be first—between the Americans, Russians, Germans and more recently, the Japanese. And as in any decades-long competition spanning countries across the globe, there is high drama involved, including fraud which this book captures excellently.
Interesting anecdotes besides much to learn from
Besides coming away with a greater appreciation and understanding of what it takes to attempt the creation of these superheavy elements, the book has many interesting anecdotes.
To mention just one of the many, Plutonium, discovered by Seaborg and team should by convention have been given the symbol Pl, the first two letters of the name. But Pu was chosen because of the pervading stench in the labs it was discovered. Pee-Yew. Get it? I bet you’re never going to forget the symbol for Plutonium now!
University of California, Berkeley (in my metaphorical backyard) has a storied history for its science contributions and Nobel winners. But I was not aware of the specific and enormous contributions to element discovery: 14 Transuranic elements of the 26 currently known. Led by stalwarts Seaborg, Ghioro, Jim Harris et al. Nor was I aware of the fraud perpetrated by Victor Ninov at Lawrence labs, one that perhaps cost Darlene Hoffman a Nobel prize, not to mention the ignominy he brought on his team by their association with him.
There are probably a couple of superheavy elements in your home right now! There certainly are in mine. Americium (atomic no. 95) is commonly used in smoke detectors and it alpha decays to Neptunium.
Although the smoke detector is Americium’s great contribution to modern living, actinide chemists often joke that they are constantly looking for new ways to ‘make americium great again’.
A Bohrium by any other name would be just as radioactive!
The Americans were not the only ones in this race. Gregory Flerov and Yuri Oganesson (initially behind the iron curtain) were pushing the boundaries of the periodic table equally hard. So much so that it would lead to the so-called Transfermium Wars: the big dispute over who actually discovered some of these elements first and hence got to name them?
This section makes for some of the most interesting reading in the book: revealing the all too human side of scientists as the Russians and Americans fought for discovery credit and consequently naming rights.
Why even bother?
The nuclei of several of the superheavies survive for milliseconds or less. The scientific consensus is that a nucleus must survive for at least 1e-14 seconds to count as a new element. Less than a handful of nuclei have been created of some of these elements! Most of them likely do not currently exist. This begs the question: is this research even important? That is a question to which even several physicists answer in the negative. But the quest for wandering in uncharted territory is the essence of being human, even, or especially when, there is no immediate payoff. Who knows what the future superheavies will teach us about nuclear structure or physics in general?
Exploring the unknown: it’s how we find answers to questions we haven’t thought of yet.
I for one feel better informed and ready to celebrate the discoveries of the next few elements (119, 120?) in the years to come which as I understand is currently a race between the Japanese and Russian teams.
1 thought on “Superheavy: Making and Breaking the periodic table”
Thanks, I’ll look into this, seems interesting.