Glenn T. Seaborg - Böcker

Written by established experts in the field, this book features in-depth discussions of proven scientific principles, current trends, and applications of nuclear chemistry to the sciences and engineering.•    Provides up-to-date coverage of the latest research and examines the theoretical and practical aspects of nuclear and radiochemistry•    Presents the basic physical principles of nuclear and radiochemistry in a succinct fashion, requiring no basic knowledge of quantum mechanics•    Adds discussion of math tools and simulations to demonstrate various phenomena, new chapters on Nuclear Medicine, Nuclear Forensics and Particle Physics, and updates to all other chapters•    Includes additional in-chapter sample problems with solutions to help students•    Reviews of 1st edition: "... an authoritative, comprehensive but succinct, state-of-the-art textbook ...." (The Chemical Educator) and "...an excellent resource for libraries and laboratories supporting programs requiring familiarity with nuclear processes ..." (CHOICE)

Written by Glenn T. Seaborg, Nobel Laureate and pre-eminent figure in the field, with the assistance of Walter D. Loveland, it covers all aspects of transuranium elements, including their discovery, chemical properties, nuclear properties, nuclear synthesis reactions, experimental techniques, natural occurrence, superheavy elements, and predictions for the future. Published on the fiftieth anniversary of the discovery of transuranium elements, it conveys the essence of the ideas and distinctive blend of theory and experiment that has marked their study.

"This is one of the most important books to come from a university press within the last year ...Seaberg, Nobel Prize laureate, was chairman of the old Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) when the treaty was negotiated. With a decent time interval now past, he has opened the detailed diary he kept during his AEC tenure. Together with auxiliary materials, including interviews with other participants, he has now written an incisive account of events leading up to the treaty and of the negotiations and their successful conclusion." (Christian Science Monitor). "Drawn from [Seaberg's] personal journal, this book focuses on Kennedy's quest for a comprehensive test ban and on why, 'despite some near misses, this glittering prize, which carried with it the opportunity to arrest the viciously spiralling arms race, eluded our grasp.' More than a memoir, the book draws upon documents and observations of other key participants ...It also provides insights into Kennedy and his Administration as well as giving us the substance of the nuclear test ban debate. Mr. Seaberg is refreshingly fair in his assessment of the merits and failures of the limited treaty that Kennedy achieved." (New York Times)."A detailed and absorbing history of what seems, in retrospect, the innocent and halcyon days of nuclear arms control. Seaberg rightly lays claim to having been an 'insider' in the test ban negotiations, and his first-person account benefits from close friendship with other Kennedy insiders...As might be expected, the book is most interesting for the light it throws upon the thoughts and actions of Kennedy; a surprise is its insight, reflected through the eyes of Kennedy and Harriman, into the personality of Khrushchev...Implicit in Seaborg's portrait of Khrushchev is a view which perhaps had some currency in the Kennedy administration but more recently seems to have fallen out of vogue--that it is possible to deal with the Russians." (Washington Post).

In this highly interesting book, three pioneering investigators provide an account of the discovery and investigation of the nuclear and chemical properties of the twenty presently known transuranium elements. The neutron irradiation of uranium led to the discovery of nuclear fission in 1938 and then to the first transuranium element, neptunium (atomic number 93), in 1940. Plutonium (94) quickly followed and the next nine elements completed the actinide series by 1961. Investigation of the chemical properties of the actinides was followed more recently by chemical studies of the first three transactinides — rutherfordium (104), hahnium (105), and seaborgium (106). Recent discoveries have extended the known elements to 112.

During his distinguished career spanning more than 50 years, Nobel laureate (Chemistry) Glenn T Seaborg published over 500 works. This volume puts together about 100 of his selected papers. The papers are divided into five categories. Category I consists of papers which detail the discovery of 10 transuranium elements and numerous heavy isotopes of special importance. Category II papers describe the discovery of a number of isotopes which became the workhorses of nuclear medicine or found other applications. Papers in Category III describe how the chemical properties of transuranium elements were originally determined, how chemistry is applied in nuclear sciences, and other chemical investigations, including early work done with the great chemist G N Lewis. Papers in Category IV cover radioactive decay chains and nuclear systematics. Lastly, papers in Category V illustrate how the powerful methods of chemistry are used to explain nuclear reactions in low, intermediate and high energy nuclear physics.