EP 46 · 56:53

Neptunium, plutonium, and transuranium elements

From America 250: The Breakthroughs That Built American Science — Part 1

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Physicists Edwin McMillan and Glenn Seaborg, working at Berkeley, created neptunium and plutonium, the first transuranium elements, extending the periodic table beyond uranium using human effort rather than natural processes. This work earned the 1951 Nobel Prize in chemistry.

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56:54This was physicist Edwin McMillan and Glenn Seabborg. They were working out of Berkeley and they expanded the periodic table with human effort. This is huge, right? Because now we are making things that the universe doesn't create. >> We're literally making it, right? >> Yes. >> This is crazy. um they created neptunium and plutonium that are the first trans uranium elements. So like the periodic table usually ends at uranium and if humans had nothing to do with it, it would end at uranium. But on earth we have other elements. These are the first guys to do it. 1951 Nobel Prize in chemistry >> and maybe the aliens have expanded even

57:34on our periodic table. This is where we start getting packed everybody because this is backto backto back. Here we go. 1940 development of blood plasma banking. Yes, this is physician Charles L. R. Drew. Um he was a black physician and doctor and he developed the protocols for mass blood plasma separation and long-term preservation at Columbia University and the Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. His work enabled the creation of the first mass blood bank. um he had to go through a

From the episode
  1. EP 46

    America 250: The Breakthroughs That Built American Science — Part 1

    Part one of our America 250 special traces the inventions, institutions, and scientific breakthroughs — from Franklin to Sputnik — that helped build the United States into a global scientific power.

    America 250: The Breakthroughs That Built American Science — Part 1

America 250History of Science