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transmutation of elements

(Encyclopedia)transmutation of elements, conversion of one chemical element into another. The expression has both historical and contemporary significance. The transmutation of certain metals into gold by means of ...

Lawrence, Ernest Orlando

(Encyclopedia)Lawrence, Ernest Orlando, 1901–58, American physicist, b. Canton, S. Dak., grad. Univ. of South Dakota, 1922, Ph.D. Yale, 1925. Affiliated with the Univ. of California from 1928 onward, he became a ...

Soddy, Frederick

(Encyclopedia)Soddy, Frederick sŏdˈē [key], 1877–1956, English chemist. He worked under Lord Rutherford at McGill Univ. and with Sir William Ramsay at the Univ. of London. After serving (1910–14) as lecturer...

Elements (table)

(Encyclopedia)Elements 1 Parentheses indicate most stable isotope; brackets enclose lower and upper bounds of weight variation. ...

artificial elements

(Encyclopedia)artificial elements: see synthetic elements. ...

synthetic elements

(Encyclopedia)synthetic elements, in chemistry, radioactive elements that were not discovered occurring in nature but as artificially produced isotopes. They are technetium (at. no. 43), which was the first element...

transition elements

(Encyclopedia)transition elements or transition metals, in chemistry, group of elements characterized by the filling of an inner d electron orbital as atomic number increases. This includes the elements from titani...

transuranium elements

(Encyclopedia)transuranium elements, in chemistry, radioactive elements with atomic numbers greater than that of uranium (at. no. 92). All the transuranium elements of the actinide series were discovered as synthet...

transactinide elements

(Encyclopedia)transactinide elements trănsˌăkˈtənīdˌ [key], in chemistry, elements with atomic numbers greater than that of lawrencium (at. no. 103), the last member of the actinide series. See transuranium ...

alchemy

(Encyclopedia)alchemy ălˈkəmē [key], ancient art of obscure origin that sought to transform base metals (e.g., lead) into silver and gold; forerunner of the science of chemistry. Some scholars hold that it was ...