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Article: It glows in the dark in more ways than one
- Article from:
- The Independent (London, England)
- Article date:
- November 21, 1995
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 1995 The Independent - London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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Fifty years ago this week, a new element was announced -
americium. What was almost as newsworthy was where it was
announced: on an American children's radio show called Quiz Kids.
The guest scientist on the panel was a 33-year-old chemist, Glen T
Seaborg, who had worked on the top- secret atomic weapons research
programme that had made the new element. It had been produced in a
nuclear reactor at the University of Chicago, Illinois, by
bombarding plutonium with sub-nuclear particles called neutrons.
Americium is highly radioactive, emitting alpha particles and
gamma rays as it transmutes to neptunium. It has a half-life of 430
years; in other words, half of the sample will undergo ...